WORCESTER - A lawyer for Angelo Colon-Ortiz, the Worcester deliveryman charged with the 2016 murder of 27-year-old Vanessa T. Marcotte in Princeton, is asking that DNA evidence against his client be thrown out.

Mr. Colon-Ortiz, 32, is awaiting trial in Worcester Superior Court on a murder charge in the Aug. 7, 2016, strangulation death of Ms. Marcotte, a Google executive who went for a run that day while visiting her mother in Princeton and never returned. Her partially burned body was discovered several hours later in woods off Brooks Station Road.

Edward P. Ryan Jr., one of the lawyers representing Mr. Colon-Ortiz, filed a motion Dec. 14 asking that a DNA sample taken from his client on March 16, 2017, be suppressed as evidence in the case, along with the results of all follow-up DNA testing.

Mr. Ryan alleges in the motion that the sample was taken and the testing completed in violation of his client's constitutional rights. Citing what he said was a language barrier and the alleged inability of a police translator to accurately communicate what was being asked of Mr. Colon-Ortiz, Mr. Ryan contends the DNA exemplar, which prosecutors said later linked Mr. Colon-Ortiz to Ms. Marcotte's slaying, was seized without the suspect's "knowing and voluntary consent."

Police and prosecutors have said Mr. Colon-Ortiz's DNA matched DNA that was found under Ms. Marcotte's fingernails.

Mr. Colon-Ortiz was arrested on April 15, 2017, and was initially charged with aggravated assault and battery on Ms. Marcotte and assault with intent to rape her. Authorities said at that time that Mr. Colon-Ortiz's DNA profile matched a genetic profile derived from samples taken from Ms. Marcotte's hands at autopsy.

Mr. Colon-Ortiz was indicted on the murder charge in June 2017, and remains in custody without bail after pleading not guilty.

Early in the investigation, District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said a dark-colored SUV had been seen parked near the spot where the victim's body was found. Later, DNA recovered from Ms. Marcotte's body was used to develop a profile of the possible killer.

In February 2017, Mr. Early said authorities believed the person of interest in Ms. Marcotte's slaying would be a Hispanic or Latino man who was about 30 years old, of average height, with an athletic build and with a light to medium complexion. The following month, Trooper Robert Parr saw Mr. Colon-Ortiz driving a dark SUV in Worcester and jotted down the license plate number on his hand, according to authorities.

The state trooper followed up and eventually spoke to Mr. Colon-Ortiz, who provided a DNA sample that led to the additional testing, prosecutors said.

In an unsigned affidavit accompanying Mr. Ryan's motion to suppress, Mr. Colon-Ortiz said he was born in Puerto Rico, does not speak or understand English "in any functional way" and does not read the language.

On or about March 16, 2017, he said in the affidavit, representatives of what he believed to be the state police came to his home to speak with him. Mr. Colon-Ortiz was not home at that time and the officers spoke to his girlfriend, Rachael Lozada-Vega, according to the affidavit.

"The police were told that I did not speak English and to come back with someone who spoke Spanish," the affidavit reads.

Two officers later returned to his home, accompanied by "another individual who spoke a version of Spanish that was strange to me," according to Mr. Colon-Ortiz's affidavit. He wrote that his girlfriend "had to interrupt and interpret some of what the Spanish speaker was saying to me and what I was saying to him. She had to assist him in translating."

According to the affidavit, Mr. Colon-Ortiz was told that the officers were investigating "all Latino's (sic) in Massachusetts and were looking for a black vehicle." Ms. Lozada-Vega said her vehicle was green, the affidavit states.

Mr. Colon-Ortiz said he answered affirmatively when asked if he knew of Princeton and was told by the officers there had been a murder there and they were doing DNA testing.

The suspect said he was given a piece of paper to sign. "I did not read it and did not understand that I was signing a consent to allow them to obtain a sample of saliva from my mouth," according to his affidavit.

"One of the officers put gloves on, used a cotton swab in my mouth and placed it on a red dot. The swab was then put on a paper with a red dot. The swab was left in my home," the affidavit states.

Mr. Colon-Ortiz said it was his understanding at the time that he had no choice but to provide the DNA sample. He said in his affidavit that he did not do so voluntarily and that Ms. Lozada-Vega had told him in Spanish to "just do it."

Mr. Ryan noted in his motion that it was the prosecution's burden to show that Mr. Colon-Ortiz's consent to the taking of a DNA exemplar was freely and voluntarily given and that his permission was not "mere acquiescence."

"Here the language barrier and the inability of the police translator to accurately communicate what was being asked of the defendant negates any consent provided by the defendant for the taking of a DNA swab. The circumstances of the taking of the sample warrant the conclusion that the defendant was merely submitting to the authority of the police," Mr. Ryan wrote in his motion.

Prosecutors have not yet filed their written opposition to the motion to suppress with the court. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Jan. 17.