A case heard in Androscoggin County Superior Court Tuesday is shining a spotlight on Maine's mental health care system. Justin Butterfield of Poland entered a plea of not criminally responsible by reason of insanity for the murder of his brother on Thanksgiving Day in 2022. His friends and family say the murder could have been prevented if Butterfield had received adequate treatment.
Butterfield entered the plea in court under an agreement. He told friends and family who were present that he was sorry, and that he didn't know at the time of the murder that he killed his brother, Gabe Damour, who he called his best friend.
Friends have said that in the months leading up to the murder, they tried to get treatment for Butterfield, who has been diagnosed with psychotic disorder. He was hospitalized several times, but only briefly, they say.
His former girlfriend and the mother of his two children, Yaicha Provencher, says she hopes that the case will lead to improvements in Maine's mental health system.
"I would say if an individual is presenting the way that Justin had presented in the past, you know, today or tomorrow, because you know that's happening, that we take a little bit of extra time and we really think about what we're doing before we release these individuals," she says.
In comments made while accepting the plea, presiding Justice Harold Stewart said that all too often, treatment for mental health in Maine is insufficient or comes too late.
Butterfield is now under state custody at Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta, where he'll receive care indefinitely.
