Courts and Crime

DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — A Maine mother of 13 authorities say tried to hire someone to kill her husband has been sentenced to four months in jail.

Wendy Farley was ordered to serve four months of a 10-year sentence after entering an Alford plea on Monday in Piscataquis County Superior Court to a charge of criminal solicitation.

An Alford plea means while she doesn't admit guilt, she acknowledges there is enough evidence to convict.

Farley's trial on the charge in March ended in a mistrial.

AUGUSTA, Maine — A Vassalboro man who fatally stabbed a longtime friend he claimed sexually abused him as a child has been sentenced to 32 years in prison.

Courtney Shea was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in Kennebec County Superior Court to murder for the November slaying of 69-year-old Thomas Namer.

Namer's body was found near Shea's home. He had been stabbed three times through the neck and upper torso.

AUGUSTA, Maine — A Gardiner man accused of killing and dismembering his father is set to appear in court.

Police say Leroy Smith III killed his father by stabbing him in the neck and using three knives to chop up his body before burying him in the woods. They say the killing occurred inside an apartment Leroy Smith Jr. shared with his son. The younger Smith will appear in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta on Tuesday.

Prosecutors say Smith's appearance on Tuesday is a status update on the case. He has entered a not guilty plea.

DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine (AP) _ A Maine woman is not contesting charges she tried to hire someone to kill her husband and has reached a plea deal with prosecutors.
 
    WABI-TV reports Monday that Wendy Farley of Brownville entered an Alford plea to charges of criminal solicitation for allegedly offering someone several thousand dollars to kill her husband of 30 years in September 2012. The plea means she is admitting the evidence is sufficient for a potential conviction.
 

ROCKLAND, Maine (AP) _ The trial of a former teacher accused of pushing his wife off a Maine cliff is set to begin with jury selection.
 
    The jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in Rockland, Maine. Charles Black is charged with attempted murder, two counts of elevated aggravated assault and three counts of aggravated assault.
 
    Prosecutors say the 71-year-old hit his wife on the head with a rock before pushing her off Maiden Cliff in Camden Hills State Park in April 2011. Fifty-five-year-old Lisa Black survived the fall. They have since divorced.

A man who spent three decades hiding out in the southern Maine town of Gorham after being convicted of three rapes in Massachusetts was sentenced today to nearly seven years in prison.  

SCARBOROUGH, Maine — Police say a car rammed a Scarborough doughnut shop apparently in an effort to rob it.

Employees arriving for work at the Dunkin' Donuts on Thursday morning found that the studs at the back of the building had been pushed in and the vinyl siding damaged.

A review of security video showed images of a car ramming the building.

Police say the video showed images of a Toyota Camry shining its lights on the rear door of the building, then accelerating and hitting the building just to the side of the door.

SKOWHEGAN, Maine — A former resident of a Skowhegan homeless shelter has been charged with stealing a cabinet full of prescription medications from the facility.

Police Chief Edward Blais says 45-year-old John Donovan moved out of the Trinity Men's Shelter after last weekend's theft.

Donovan was arrested Wednesday and charged with unlawful possession of scheduled drugs.

Police tell the Morning Sentinel he was arrested at an apartment where he was staying after another resident called police.

ARUNDEL, Maine — An Old Orchard Beach man has been indicted on manslaughter and drunken driving charges in connection with a car crash that killed his friend.

The Portland Press Herald reports that a York County grand jury indicted 32-year-old Brian Roche this week in connection with the crash Oct. 26 in Arundel.

Police say Roche was driving when he lost control of his car on a curve and struck a utility pole.

MERRILL, Maine (AP) _ Maine agents have responded to a suspected methamphetamine lab near Houlton.
 
    The Maine Department of Public Safety says that the Maine Drug Enforcement agents issued a search warrant at a home in Merrill on Wednesday night after a months-long investigation.
 
    Agents conducted an undercover purchase of meth from the home prior to delivering the search warrant.
 
    The department says agents successfully dismantled the lab with assistance from the Department of Environmental Protection and the Oakfield Fire Department.

AUBURN, Maine — A second man is facing a murder charge in connection with the slaying of a Lewiston man whose body was dumped in a stream in Monmouth.

William True, who had been charged with hindering the investigation into the April 2013 beating and strangulation death of Romeo Parent, was indicted on a murder charge Wednesday.

True was indicted the same day testimony started in the trial of Michael McNaughton, also charged with murder in the 20-year-old Parent's death.

TWIN MOUNTAIN, N.H. — The FBI says a Maine man has been arrested in New Hampshire on charges of robbing a bank in his home state.

The FBI and Maine State Police say they arrested 66-year-old John Cecil Slater of Augusta in Twin Mountain, New Hampshire on Wednesday.

Slater is accused of robbing The Bank of Maine in Hallowell on June 23.

He's expected to be arraigned in federal court in Bangor, Maine, on Thursday. It was not immediately known if he has a lawyer.