Judge says evidence against Joyce McLain murder suspect ‘not overwhelming’




A Superior Court judge Monday described the evidence against the man accused of killing Joyce McLain and dumping her body near Schenck High School in East Millinocket nearly 36 years ago as “solid but not overwhelming” at the conclusion of a bail and probable cause hearing at the Penobscot Judicial Center.

Justice Ann Murray found at the end of the hearing, which began last month, there was probable cause for the murder charge filed against Philip Scott Fournier, 55, of East Millinocket.

Fournier was arrested without incident March 4, 2016, and since has been held without bail at the Penobscot County Jail.

Murray, who tentatively set a trial in January 2018, also set bail at $300,000 but did not specify if she required cash or property.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor told Murray during Monday’s hearing that his client’s family would be able to post $50,000 in property but did not have the means to post a high cash or surety bail.



http://bangordailynews.com/2016/07/18/news/penobscot/judge-says-evidence-against-joyce-mclain-murder-suspect-not-overwhelming/

"Solid but not overwhelming," huh?

The standard for probable cause is if there is "a possibility that the Defendant may have committed the crime." That's all they had to prove at this stage. I'm frankly confused as to why the judge felt the need to interject her opinion of the state's case at this juncture. It's not like they were asking her to find him guilty of the crime. That comes later.

One thing that sucks is the trial isn't until 2018

One thing that sucks is the trial isn't until 2018

Wow. That's a hefty delay. Wonder who requested that?

Finally, a conviction.

http://www.wagmtv.com/content/news/Man-found-guilty-in-1980-murder-of-East-Millinocket-teen-474850903.html

Posted: Thu 11:35 AM, Feb 22, 2018

BANGOR, Maine (WMTW) - A judge has ruled 57 year old Philip Scott Fournier guilty in the murder of 16 year old Joyce McLain.

The 16 year old was killed in East Millinocket in 1980.

McLain disappeared while jogging and never returned home. Her body was found two days later behind Schenk High School.

Before the ruling, Superior Court Justice Ann Murray compared statements Fournier made over the years to the crime scene and how McLain’s body was found.

The judge also said testimony confirmed Fournier suffered a traumatic brain injury after getting into a car crash the night McLain was murdered.

Final arguments in the case were held earlier in February. A defense lawyer said "doubts will linger" over the case regardless of whether Fournier's convicted. The defense also said Fournier's memories, which are central to the case, were unreliable.

There isn't physical evidence tying Fournier to the crime scene, but prosecutors said he confessed numerous times over the years.

If anyone finds the actual judgment and order in this case, I would LOVE to read it...

I know Judge Murray found him guilty. I respect that, but I would also love to know what her rationale was, considering the defense claims that there was no physical evidence at the scene. Did she hang her hat on his statements that he didn't rape Joyce because it was "the wrong time of the month," which was verified by the coroner? Or was it something else?

I'm glad the McLain family has closure, but for me, there are still a lot of questions...

Apparently the big piece of convincing evidence was the janitor's testimony. Fournier had confessed to him when they began working together. He reported the confession to his employers but they did nothing with it.

https://bangordailynews.com/2018/02/24/news/penobscot/how-a-janitors-chance-encounter-helped-convict-a-murderer-in-the-joyce-mclain-case/


How a janitor’s chance encounter helped convict a murderer in the Joyce McLain case

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff • February 24, 2018 1:00 am
Updated: February 24, 2018 7:44 am

John DeRoche never knew Philip Scott Fournier had confessed to anyone but him when the Bangor High School janitor took the stand last month in the Joyce McLain murder trial.

It wasn’t until he saw news reports about that day’s testimony that DeRoche, 78, of Bangor learned that Fournier’s off-handed confession to him in 1989 confirmed statements he’d made about killing McLain eight years earlier to his minister, the Rev. Vinal Thomas, and parents, Anita and Wayne Powers.


“I never knew they had other evidence,” DeRoche said Friday as he prepared for his shift at the high school. “But I thought I was the only one who knew he’d confessed.”

DeRoche testified last month that Fournier bragged to him about killing McLain in 1989, nearly 10 years after her body was found on Aug. 10, 1980. Both worked at what was then Husson College as janitors.

DeRoche’s testimony was crucial in convicting Fournier, 57, of East Millinocket of murdering McLain, a Superior Court judge said Thursday. Justice Ann Murray found DeRoche’s testimony to be “clear, believable and compelling” and gave his statements “great weight.”

The U.S. Navy veteran, who has two daughters who are close to McLain in age had she not been killed, came forward to tell his story the Monday after Fournier was arrested on Friday, March 4, 2016.

“I learned on the TV news he’d been arrested while I was over at my brother’s,” DeRoche said. “I jumped up and said, ‘God damn, they got him,’ and I never swear at my brother’s house. On Monday, I called the police to see if I could do any good.”

He told police and, nearly two years later the judge, that Fournier worked for a year at Husson beginning in June 1989. DeRoche, who was a janitorial supervisor, asked Fournier his first day on the job about McLain’s murder when he learned where Fournier lived.

“I asked him if he knew about Joyce’s murder and he said, ‘I killed her. I know all about it,'” DeRoche testified. “I said, ‘How did you kill her?’ and he said, ‘I hit her with a glass insulator on the back of the head.'”

A few days later, DeRoche said, he asked Fournier why he had not been arrested.

“He said that he’d been interviewed 20 times or more and he’d ‘beat all the interviews,'” the janitor testified.

DeRoche said he told Husson security in 1989 there was a suspect in McLain’s murder working at the college. The information apparently was not passed on to the Maine State Police.

The janitor said Friday that he was nervous about taking the stand.

“Once I got up there, I remembered when I was in the Navy,” DeRoche said. “I looked straight ahead and I answered the questions, ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ I didn’t look at the judge once.”

DeRoche said Friday that he learned Fournier had been convicted from the victim witness advocate shortly after the verdict was announced.

“I wasn’t too surprised but I was kind of nervous that he’d get away,” he said. “After being free all these years, I think he should get life.”

Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea said Friday in an email that what the U.S. Navy veteran told Murray was important to the prosecution’s case.

“Mr. DeRoche’s testimony was important because it confirmed what the defendant had previously said to Vinal Thomas and the Powers,” she said. “It was also important from the state’s perspective because his admission to Mr. DeRoche showed that the defendant’s previous admissions were reliable and accurate.”

Defense attorney, Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor, called DeRoche’s testimony “an evidentiary oddity” that the defense team knew would be “problematic.”

“[Fournier] had disclaimed any involvement in 1981 [in McLain’s death] and was consistent in all subsequent interviews [with police],” the lawyer said Friday in an email. “This DeRoche allegation stood in stark contrast chronologically — [it was] difficult to allege that DeRoche was lying because he came forward before any details had been released by the affidavit.

“We were challenged to explain how he would have come up with the ‘insulator to the back of the head’ reference,” Silvestein said. “Since it was described as involving a confession within moments of meeting the man, we contextualized it as brain injury evidence.”

The judge rejected that argument.

DeRoche said that he has read the judge’s decision but needs “to study it” to understand exactly what role he played in Fournier’s conviction.

“This tells me I’m a truthful and a good person,” he said of Murray’s statements about his testimony. “I just wanted justice.”

He also wants his experience to be a lesson for the students he interacts with every day.

“They should speak up when they see something, even if it’s years later like what happened here,” DeRoche said.

DeRoche grew up in south Brewer and graduated from Brewer High School in 1958. Two weeks after graduation, he joined the Seebeas, the construction arm of the Navy. He had been out of the service for about a year when he read the news reports about McLain’s death in 1980.

He worked for the YMCA before going to work for Husson in 1988. DeRoche has worked for the Bangor School Department since 1996.

DeRoche said Friday that he plans to work another five years.

*******

Something else I wanted to add.

Fournier implicated 4 men in his affidavit. Adam Austin, Grant Boynton, Gary Friel, and Roger Pictou as "being involved in the abduction and homicide of McLain"

http://bigcountry969.com/files/2016/03/MCLAIN-AFFIDAVIT.pdf

The community around East Millinocket Maine seems to feel that the police concentrated for too long on the wrong man, which is why Fournier wasn't pursued correctly and aggressively earlier. And, they seem to feel that there are more guilty parties that need to be brought to justice as well.

https://bangordailynews.com/2018/02/22/news/penobscot/glad-to-have-it-over-maine-town-reacts-to-cold-case-guilty-verdict/

There are a few other articles that concentrate on Grant Boynton, one of the 4 Fournier named, specifically.

If I find the judge's actual order I will add it.

Found the order -

https://bangordailynews.com/2018/02/22/news/state/read-justice-ann-murrays-full-judgment-in-the-murder-trial-of-philip-scott-fournier/

Reading it now! Thanks!

Found the order -

https://bangordailynews.com/2018/02/22/news/state/read-justice-ann-murrays-full-judgment-in-the-murder-trial-of-philip-scott-fournier/

I'm having trouble buying his selective memory. He remembers visiting Joyce and Wendy the day before Joyce's murder and specifically telling Wendy that he thought Joyce was cute and had a nice smile. He remembers every single person he was hanging out with at the party, where he was afterwards and what he was drinking. But he doesn't remember stealing the oil truck or why he did it. That's just a little too convenient for my taste.

The whole head injury is way too convenient all together. Especially when he remembers basically 95% of everything else that happened that day, even 37 years later.

I agree with LooksLikeCRicci that there are still some questions in regards to physical evidence but this guy isn't doing himself many favors otherwise.