DNA Evidence Used To Solve Housebreak: SK Police

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, RI— A registered level II sex offender has been charged with breaking into a home, police said. Daryl Bruce Coon, 38, of West Greenwich, smashed a window at a Karison Street house on Jan. 6, 2017, police allege. Once through the ground floor window, police said, he headed for the master bedroom and stole jewelry. But he apparently was interrupted, according to the police department's press release. The victim "believes he might have startled the suspect when he returned home," police said, and the intruder went out a back sliding door.

After the crime was reported, police went to the house and took samples of blood they found at the crime scene. They sent the samples to the state health department's DNA data base. On June 2, the health department sent police news that the blood samples matched a convicted felon and registered sex offender.

Coon had been held at the state prison since March 26 when North Kingstown police charged him with "two counts of Breaking and Entering of Dwelling House without Consent and violating his probationary status for criminal convictions from crimes committed in Westerly and Charlestown, RI."

South Kingstown police then obtained a search warrant for Coon's DNA, which they took with a swab. On July 30, the health department confirmed his DNA matched the DNA from the blood at the crime scene. He was taken from state prison to Washington County Court to be arraigned. He pleaded innocent. The court scheduled the next court date for Nov. 9. Meanwhile, Coon was sent back to the state prison.