AUBURN — A judge sided with prosecutors Thursday in an attempted murder case, saying DNA evidence collected from the defendant shortly after his arrest was legal even though police hadn’t executed a search warrant.

Sudanese refugee Deng Mirac, 42, of 158 Blake St. in Lewiston was in Androscoggin County Superior Court for a hearing on his motion to suppress evidence. He was assisted by an interpreter.

He is accused of stabbing his estranged wife, Adut Adong, 34, in the face and abdomen with a kitchen knife in the driveway of her Blake Street apartment in Lewiston in April.

Mirac’s attorney, Nicholas Worden, argued that police should have secured a search warrant before collecting samples of a reddish-brown substance that appeared to be blood on Mirac’s hands and the black leather jacket he was wearing. He said there was no risk of his client destroying or hiding evidence because he was in police custody in an interview room at the police station in Lewiston with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Worden said those circumstances gave police enough time to seek a warrant before taking swabs of DNA from Mirac’s hands and jacket. His Fourth Amendment rights were violated, Worden said.

Prosecutors countered that because Mirac, who pronounces his name to sound like “mirage,” was in police custody when the samples were taken, a warrantless search was allowed. Citing a Maine arson case that came before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on appeal, Assistant District Attorney Lisa Bogue said police seeking evidence without search warrants are allowed in two instances: when an officer needs to disarm a defendant and when police are trying to preserve evidence of a crime.

In denying Mirac’s motion, Justice MaryGay Kennedy agreed with Bogue, saying Mirac was in police custody after his legal arrest and there was probable cause to believe a crime had been committed.

“One of the exceptions to a search warrant is when . . . there was a serious concern or would be serious concern that he might destroy evidence,” Kennedy said.

Mirac was indicted by an Androscoggin County grand jury in May on a charge of attempted murder, a Class A felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. He also was charged with aggravated assault, a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

He remains at Androscoggin County Jail in lieu of $100,000 cash bail.

According to an affidavit, police said Mirac told Adong: “I’m done for you today,” then stabbed her several times shortly after midnight.

Bogue said at an earlier hearing that at the time of the stabbing, Mirac had been freed on bail on a domestic violence charge with the same victim.

As Mirac fled the scene, a neighbor who was watching from a second-floor window in Adong’s apartment building heard Adong scream and yell for help. The neighbor saw Mirac run from the back of the building toward the front, then down Blake Street, police said in an affidavit. The same neighbor went downstairs to help Adong.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

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