BELFAST, Maine — A man charged with strangling his girlfriend to death a year and a half ago will be sentenced Monday at Waldo County Superior Court for the crime.
Dennis Edgecomb, 41, formerly of Belfast, will change his plea to guilty of murdering Pamela Green, 42, of Morrill, according to Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea.
A police affidavit filed with the case after the killing reported that Edgecomb called a 911 dispatcher on July 20 and said that he had just strangled a woman in the Morrill home they shared and that he did not think she was going to live.
He then asked the dispatcher to hold on, because he was going to be sick, the affidavit said.
An hour before that call, Green had sent a text message to her daughter, police report.
“He’s threatening to kill me right now, call and you can hear it,” the message read.
Edgecomb initially pleaded not guilty to the crime and has been at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscassett awaiting trial, his court-appointed attorney, Jeremy Pratt of Camden, said last fall.
When he made his first court appearance shortly after the murder, the courtroom was crowded with Green’s friends and relatives, one of whom described the woman as “awesome” and “a lot of fun.”
Edgecomb told police detectives that the day’s violent events began when Green found out that he wanted to move from her home, according to the affidavit. He told police that they began fighting, and that he pushed her on the couch.
“He told us when he threw her on the couch she said, ‘That’s going to leave a mark.’ He then held her down and choked her,” Detective Scott Bryant of the Maine State Police wrote in the probable cause affidavit filed at Waldo County Superior Court.
Edgecomb told them that Green’s face was under a cushion, and that he stopped choking her when she stopped moving.
In the 911 call, Edgecomb told a dispatcher that she had been “lying there blue and not breathing” for 10 minutes before he called for help, Bryant wrote.
“He said he defended himself and does not want to go to jail,” the detective said in the affidavit. “He tried CPR and it did not work.”
Zainea said that Green’s loved ones are expected to stand up in court and describe the impact that her death has had upon their lives.
Ellie Hutchinson, an advocate at the midcoast domestic violence nonprofit agency New Hope For Women, said last fall that it has been “unsettling” for people in Waldo County to have gone so long without a trial or sentencing for Green’s murder.
“I think when it hangs on more than a year, people wonder what’s happened. Or maybe think that nothing’s happened, which is even worse,” she said in October.
Edgecomb’s sentencing will begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday.
Too bad Ol’ Sparky was mothballed.
just plain sad
I have known Dennis since childhood, and he has never been right mentally. I feel so bad for this poor woman’s family that she was taken by a drunk,drug addict, who should have been institutionalized years ago. The one thing I find humorous in this story is the involvement of new hope for women. While they may help some women who really do need it, there is not a more crooked organization in the State of Maine. When pyramid schemes were coming to light in Maine about 12 years ago, they were receiving funds from one of those schemes, yet nothing was ever done because they” Ensured the safety and well being of many women with these funds.” I agree it is sad that it has taken a year for him to be sentenced, but for new hope for women to be involved in any way,shape,or form is absolutely ludicrous,ridiculous, and an outright travesty. I want to say that I believe there should be organizations who help women in crisis, I just happen to think this particular one is a complete and total farce
It is ironic how the entire community of Belfast supported Amber Cummings for murdering her husband while they seem disgraced by the presence of Dennis Edgecomb.
Amber and her attorney knew how to gather the forces needed right from the start — getting New Hope for Women and any other domestic abuse enitity behind her really helped her. Men in these situations don’t always have the same support or are too ashamed to come forward with what was going on within the walls of their homes.
Would you want to date her?
Perhaps more will come out at the sentencing hearing…I thought I read that it was Dennis that had been continously beaten up by this women’s brother, and it was him that was trying to get away from her. It sounded like he was in a bad situation even people he’d worked with had reported that he had been beaten up on several times. Not saying this was true information, just something that was written about when this first happened. Haven’t read anything more since when it first happened.
None of this would happen if people would do the adult thing and just walk away. So sad. Hope the dirt bag is never released.
Poor Dennis grew up abused by his brother every day, and then abused by the press, and the public. He is the best 3 point man I have ever seen.