PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — An attorney for a man convicted 38 years after the killing of a teenager sought Wednesday to convince skeptical Maine supreme court justices to set aside the conviction.
Rory McNamara, attorney for Philip Scott Fournier, said the judge erred by excluding evidence of an alternative suspect, allowing Fournier’s statements to a pastor to be used as evidence, and excluding testimony about why detectives didn’t arrest him when they first interviewed him.
But Assistant Attorney General Lara Nomani said the judge who returned a guilty verdict and imposed a 45-year sentence was thorough and thoughtful.
“The decisions that she made at trial reflect a correct understanding of the law, and show no error, much less an error that would call this conviction into question,” she said.
Fournier was convicted and sentenced this year for the killing of 16-year-old Joyce McLain in East Millinocket. McLain disappeared while jogging in 1980, and her body was found two days later.
There was no physical evidence, including no DNA or fingerprints tying Fournier to the crime scene, but prosecutors say he confessed numerous times. Fournier’s attorneys say his memories and statements about the killing were unreliable due to a brain injury.
On Wednesday, McNamara faced skepticism about his contention that Fournier’s statements to his minister were privileged even though he repeated the same comments elsewhere, and that the judge deviated from standards by excluding evidence of an alternative suspect.
Justices also suggested they’d have to overlook previous case law by allowing a detective, who investigated the case, to testify about opinion, not facts, with regards to why Fournier was not initially charged.
Fournier was 19 at the time of McLain’s death and knew her and the McLain family.
On the night of her death, Fournier was behaving erratically. He stole an oil truck and crashed it, suffering a skull fracture that left him in a coma for eight days.
The teenager, who was from East Millinocket, disappeared after a full day of baby-sitting and piano lessons. She was wearing only sneakers and socks when her body was found. She’d been bludgeoned.
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