DNA Evidence Links Waterbury Man to 2013 New Haven Sexual Assault Cold Case
Moses Watkis, 36, was arrested January 30, 2026 and held on $750,000 bond after DNA evidence from his 2022 Waterbury arrest connected him to the cold case.
PublishedMarch 13, 2026
Moses Watkis, 36, of Waterbury was arrested and charged with first-degree sexual assault and first-degree unlawful restraint
A Waterbury man was arrested in January 2026 and charged in connection with a sexual assault that occurred more than 12 years ago at a New Haven house party, after DNA evidence collected during a separate arrest in Waterbury linked him to the cold case.
Moses Watkis, 36, of Waterbury was arrested January 30, 2026 by New Haven police and charged with first-degree sexual assault and first-degree unlawful restraint. He is being held on $750,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in New Haven Superior Court following the announcement.
2013 House Party Assault Went Unsolved for Over a Decade
The original case dates to July 5, 2013, when a victim reported being sexually assaulted by a man during a house party in New Haven. The New Haven Police Department investigated the assault at the time but the case went unsolved and eventually went cold.
The case was reopened in 2025 after investigators were notified of a DNA hit through a national forensic database. The hit connected the 2013 New Haven assault to a separate sexual assault reported in Waterbury in 2021.
DNA From a 2022 Waterbury Arrest Cracked the Case
Watkis had been arrested in December 2022 in connection with the 2021 Waterbury sexual assault, and his DNA was collected at that time. The DNA profile was entered into the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), the FBI-maintained database that stores DNA profiles from crime scenes and convicted offenders across the United States.
That database flagged a match between the DNA from Watkis's 2022 arrest and biological evidence collected at the 2013 New Haven crime scene. The notification triggered the reopening of the New Haven investigation.
Detectives Samantha Romano and Sergeant Cherelle Carr of the New Haven Police Department's Special Victims Unit obtained the arrest warrant for Watkis.
City Officials Highlight Importance of Cross-Jurisdictional DNA Sharing
New Haven Acting Police Chief David Zannelli and Mayor Justin Elicker held a press conference on February 12, 2026 to announce the arrest. Department spokesperson Capt. Brendan Borer confirmed that Watkis is currently in custody and provided details about the bond amount.
Elicker and other officials emphasized the role of inter-agency cooperation and data sharing between jurisdictions in cracking cold cases. The case illustrates how DNA evidence collected in one city can surface crimes committed years earlier in another — a growing tool for law enforcement as national databases continue to expand.
Waterbury Case Still Pending
In the separate Waterbury sexual assault case from 2021, Watkis has pleaded not guilty and that matter is scheduled for jury trial. The two cases are being prosecuted independently.
Criminal charges are accusations and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. If convicted of first-degree sexual assault in Connecticut, Watkis would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and up to 20 years in prison per count under state law.
The Role of CODIS in Solving Cold Cases
The CODIS database, maintained by the FBI and operated by state laboratories across the country, has been credited with generating more than 700,000 investigative leads nationwide since its expansion in the 1990s. Cold case units across Connecticut have increasingly relied on DNA hits to reopen investigations that had stalled due to a lack of suspects.
New Haven's Special Victims Unit has handled cold case sexual assaults as part of its ongoing casework, periodically reviewing unsolved cases for new investigative leads as forensic technology and database coverage expand.
