Murder Conviction Overturned: Coatesville Man Free After 12 Years

WEST CHESTER, PA —A 32-year-old Coatesville man who spent 12 years in prison for murder, was released Friday after a federal court overturned his 2014 conviction for second-degree murder.

Marquis Rayner was convicted by a Chester County jury in a home invasion slaying of 20-year-old Dominique Williams in Coatesville.

Rayner - who has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested - was released Friday from the state Correctional Institution at Forrest County, a maximum security prison, according to court records.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, based in Philadelphia, on Feb.1 ruled that there was not enough evidence to support a conviction.

The panel agreed with Raynor’s lawyer, Samuel C. Stretton, of West Chester, that the verdict was based on speculation, not evidence.

“A verdict of guilt cannot rest upon pure speculation,” the panel wrote. “No rational jury could have found him guilty.”

The Chester County District Attorney’s office informed the court that the office will not be appealing the decision.

• Police said on June 29, 2012 intruders broke into the victim’s apartment at 744 Merchant St. wearing T-shirts covering their faces, seeking drugs and money.
• Williams was shot in the groin and was later pronounced dead in Paoli Hospital.
• Rayner; his half-brother Dominique Lee, with whom he lived, and Camron Horne were charged with murder. Horne was acquitted of murder. Lee and Rayner were convicted.
• The three-judge panel concluded that the only evidence presented by prosecutors was that a T-shirt found a block away from the murder contained Rayner’s DNA.
• Rayner said the shirt could have been taken from the home he shared with his half-brother, co-defendant Dominique Lee, who was also convicted of murder.