BANGOR, Maine — The trial of a local man charged with murdering an Old Town woman last year in a shack on the Bangor riverfront will begin Monday at the Penobscot Judicial Center.
Colin Koehler, 35, of Bangor is accused of stabbing 19-year-old Holly Boutilier in the abdomen and slitting her throat between 2 and 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009. He pleaded not guilty to intentional or knowing murder a year ago.
The jury of 15 Penobscot County men and women, including three alternates, was selected Wednesday by Superior Court Justice William Anderson, who will preside over the trial. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating on Friday.
Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson, who is prosecuting the case, declined to comment on the coming trial. It is the practice of the Maine Attorney General’s Office, which handles homicides, not to comment on pending cases.
Koehler’s defense attorney, Richard Hartley of Bangor, maintained Thursday that his client is innocent even though an affidavit filed shortly after Koehler’s arrest stated that Koehler had admitted to killing Boutilier to his ex-girlfriend and her current boyfriend.
Hartley said that a decision about whether Koehler would testify in his own defense would not be made until after the state rests its case.
“This is not a case about shades of gray,” he said. “The issue is whether or not Colin Koehler killed Holly and whether or not he was even there. The state is putting an inordinate amount of faith in the claims of Mr. [Justin] Ptaszynski. We will be contesting and challenging those claims. The defense in this case is that Colin Koehler was not [at the shack] and that he had nothing to do with the murder of Holly Boutilier.”
Ptaszynski, 28, of Bangor will be a key witness at the trial. Ptaszynski reportedly told police that he was with Koehler when the elder man killed Boutilier.
Ptaszynski originally was charged by the Maine Attorney General’s Office with murder and hindering apprehension or prosecution. He pleaded guilty to the hindering charge in May in Kennebec County Superior Court and was sentenced to 10 years in prison with all but six suspended.
The hindering apprehension or prosecution charge stemmed from the fact that Ptaszynski witnessed the crime but did nothing to stop it, nor did he contact police, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
By pleading guilty, Ptaszynski admitted that he concealed evidence and lied to investigators about the chain of events and the location of the murder weapon, described in court documents as a curved, Japanese-style knife.
In exchange for his guilty plea, the state agreed to drop the murder charge on the grounds that Ptaszynski did not personally kill Boutilier, according to a previously published report.
His Bangor attorney, Jeffrey Silverstein, said at his client’s sentencing that Ptaszynski was “more than happy to assist the state in any way.” Ptaszynski is serving his sentence at the Maine State Prison in Warren.
Boutilier’s bloody body was discovered on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009, by a transient in a shack among the trees between the end of Dutton Street and the Veterans Remembrance Bridge. Koehler and Ptaszynski went for a walk along the Penobscot River with Boutilier the day she died, according to court documents. Koehler was ar-rested by Bangor police two days later after a brief standoff with Bangor police outside his Columbia Street apartment.
In addition to Ptaszynski, Bangor police officers, the state’s chief medical examiner, the man who discovered Boutilier’s body and individuals who reportedly interacted with the victim and Koehler in the days after the murder are listed on the prosecution’s witness list.
The defense team’s witness list includes character witnesses for Koehler and private investigator Hank Dusenbery of Lincoln. Murder suspect Zachary Carr, 19, of Bangor also is on their witness list.
Carr is charged with shooting John “Bobby” Surles, 19, of Bangor in January during a fight involving six to 12 teens and young adults on Cumberland Street in Bangor. Carr is being held at the Penobscot County Jail, where Koehler has been held for more than a year.
Hartley said Thursday the two men did not know each other before their unrelated arrests.
If convicted of murder, Koehler faces a minimum of 25 years in prison and a maximum of life. He also faces a fine of up to $50,000.