Police said they arrested Samuel Lopez, 19, in state Superior Court in Danbury on July 13, charging him on a warrant with second-degree larceny in connection with an auto theft that occurred in January 2016, at a residential property on Swamp Road in Botsford.

The arrest is based on "touch DNA" evidence which police collected from the stolen vehicle, police said.

Police allege that Lopez and a yet to be named accomplice were involved with the felony theft of a 2013 gray Hyundai Elantra.

Shortly after the auto was stolen, it was found abandoned in Waterbury, according to police.

Newtown police detectives went there to collect evidence from the vehicle. Some DNA evidence which was retrieved from the auto's interior resulted in police identifying Lopez as a suspect in the crime, police said. The DNA evidence collected was created by Lopez's direct or indirect contact with the Hyundai's steering wheel, police said.

Following his arrest, Lopez was arraigned in court. He did not enter a plea to the criminal charge, according to state Judicial Branch records.

Lopez has been held as a state prisoner since February 2016. He is serving a five-year sentence at Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Uncasville on a conviction on unrelated charges.