A post-conviction hearing continues for a southwest Missouri man serving four consecutive life sentences for the 2008 kidnapping and rape of a 7-year-old girl.

Forty-two-year-old Jeffery Allen Dickson is challenging DNA test results reported by the Missouri Highway Patrol’s state crime lab. A DNA analyst who linked Dickson to the attack is among the scheduled witnesses Friday.

A Greene County jury convicted Dickson of sexually assaulting the child and forcing her to smoke drugs before setting a fire to cover up his crimes. He remains at the Potosi Correctional Center in southeast Missouri.

Dickson’s public defender says new evidence shows that his DNA sample was contaminated when the Missouri state crime lab mixed it with other samples. Prosecutors are challenging that assertion with their own DNA test results.