State v. Fournier

203 A.3d 801
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedFebruary 21, 2019
DocketDocket: Pen-18-170
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 203 A.3d 801 (State v. Fournier) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Fournier, 203 A.3d 801 (Me. 2019).

Opinion

JABAR, J.

*803[¶1] Philip S. Fournier appeals from a judgment of conviction of murder, 17-A M.R.S. § 201(1)(A) (2017), entered by the court (Penobscot County, A. Murray, J. ) after an eleven-day jury-waived trial. Fournier challenges (1) the court's method of considering evidence of alternative suspects, (2) the court's exclusion of a detective's opinion testimony, (3) the court's finding that Fournier waived his religious privilege, and (4) the court's factual findings relating to Fournier's whereabouts from 8:00 p.m. until 8:45 p.m. on the day of the murder.1 We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

[¶2] Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, the trial record supports the following facts, which were found by the court in its judgment dated February 22, 2018. See State v. Jeskey , 2016 ME 134, ¶ 2, 146 A.3d 127. Because Fournier did not request findings of fact pursuant to M.R.U. Crim. P. 23(c), we will also infer that the trial court found all of the facts necessary to support its judgment, to the extent that those assumed facts are supported by competent record evidence. See State v. Fox , 2017 ME 52, ¶ 12, 157 A.3d 778.

[¶3] In the early evening of August 8, 1980, a group of teenagers and young adults gathered at Schenck High School in East Millinocket. Among the group that gathered at the high school that evening was nineteen-year-old Fournier. During the same evening, the sixteen-year-old victim left her home in East Millinocket to go for a jog. At approximately 7:55 p.m.,2 three people saw the victim heading down Orchard Street. The same three individuals saw the victim turn off Orchard Street and proceed down a dirt road behind the first base dugout of a little league field;3 this was the last time that anyone reported seeing the victim alive.

[¶4] At some point between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m., Fournier was seen by several people with a person named Leroy; they were walking away from the high school toward the little league field. One individual saw Fournier and Leroy drinking whiskey out of a bottle on their way to the field.

[¶5] At approximately 8:15 p.m., Leroy was seen back at the high school pacing, talking to himself, and exhibiting other strange behaviors. Fournier was not seen again until approximately 8:45 p.m., when an East Millinocket police officer saw Fournier with Leroy. Fournier was also seen by another individual at around 9:00 p.m. He was running on the sidewalk by the high school and carrying a bottle of *804whiskey; another person was seen running about eight to ten feet behind him. In the early morning of August 9, 1980, Fournier stole an oil truck and crashed it into another vehicle. After the crash, Fournier was found unconscious; he had suffered severe head trauma and was in a coma for a period of time.

[¶6] When the victim did not return home on the evening of August 8, 1980, her mother made phone calls and drove around East Millinocket looking for her. August 8, 1980, was a hot summer evening, and heavy thunderstorms moving through East Millinocket made the victim's mother's search difficult. The following day, a group of people, including a teenager named Peter, joined in the search for the victim. The search efforts on Saturday, August 9, 1980, were unsuccessful, and the group discontinued the search at night and made plans to continue the search early the next morning.

[¶7] In the early morning of Sunday, August 10, 1980, Peter began searching for the victim alone and, at approximately 6:00 a.m., he found the victim's body on the pole line behind the soccer and little league field. East Millinocket and Maine State Police responded to the scene and quickly discovered that the victim had a large jagged wound on the back of her head. A large rock with ceramic debris on top of it was located next to the victim's head, and it was later determined that the ceramic debris came from an electric insulator.

[¶8] A police dog employed at the scene assisted investigators in finding several articles of the victim's clothing and a partially broken insulator on the ground. The next day, the police dog was brought back to the scene and it again alerted to the partially broken insulator, which at that time was collected by investigators as the potential murder weapon. In addition, investigators collected several pieces of insulator fragments and a rock that had some discoloration.4

[¶9] As the investigation into the victim's death continued, Fournier was still in the hospital recovering from the injuries he suffered from the car accident. Upon his release from the hospital, Fournier was admitted into a substance abuse program and did not return to East Millinocket until late December 1980. Although Fournier was identified as a suspect in the victim's death early on in the investigation, he was not questioned during the first months of the investigation because of the injuries he suffered from the accident.

[¶10] On May 5, 1981, Fournier met with investigators and led them down the path behind the soccer field to the pole line and to the area where the victim's body was found. During this walk-through of the crime scene, Fournier informed investigators that, sometime after dark on August 8, 1980, he walked to the pole line alone and tripped over a dead body. Fournier accurately pointed out the area where the victim's body had been found and correctly described to the investigators the state of the victim's body.

[¶11] One week later, on May 12, 1981, Fournier had his stepfather drive him to a local parsonage so that he could meet with a pastor. During that meeting, Fournier revealed to the pastor that he had killed the victim by hitting her with a pole with a knob on it, but stated that he did not sexually assault her. The pastor told Fournier that he did not believe Fournier's statement that he had killed the victim and *805that he would only believe him if Fournier told his mother and stepfather what he had done. Fournier's mother and stepfather arrived at the parsonage at the pastor's request, and Fournier also told them that he had killed the victim. Afterwards, the pastor drove Fournier to the Bangor Police Department, where Fournier met with two Maine State Police detectives. During this interview, Fournier stated that the victim had been tied with a rope, was cut by someone, and that he "had a feeling" that three guys sexually assaulted her. Fournier also said that the victim had kicked him in the leg and that he hit her once with an insulator he found on the ground. Fournier was not arrested after that interview.

[¶12] Fournier was interviewed by a different Maine State Police detective on May 15, 1981. During this interview, Fournier said that he remembered leaving a party alone on August 8, 1980, and going to the pole line where he tripped over a female body.

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Bluebook (online)
203 A.3d 801, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fournier-me-2019.