HOULTON, Maine — A man related to one of the people Thayne Ormsby is accused of killing was arrested and charged with tampering with a juror after he urged a juror to “hang the bastard” when the juror was entering the Aroostook County Courthouse on Tuesday morning, Maine State Police said.
Albert Gaudet, 52, of Standish was arrested by state police Lt. Christopher Coleman, who interviewed Gaudet after court proceedings Tuesday morning, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. Gaudet was then taken to the Aroostook County Jail.
The male juror reported the incident to a court official and the trial was delayed for about 45 minutes.
The juror told the court that the man held the door open for him as he entered the courthouse and said, “I hope you hang the bastard,” according to McCausland.
Tampering with a juror is a Class B crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
It is the first time in recent memory that someone has been charged with tampering with a juror at a Maine homicide trial, McCausland said.
Superior Court Justice E. Allen Hunter and attorneys for both sides questioned the juror. The man said he could remain impartial, and he will remain on the jury.
Deputy Attorney General William Stokes, who is prosecuting the case, told Hunter the incident was “of great concern” to the prosecution.
Gaudet was released later Tuesday on $750 cash bail, according to the Aroostook County district attorney’s office in Houlton. His bail conditions include not returning to Houlton until the Ormsby trial concludes. He is scheduled to appear in Aroostook County Superior Court on July 18 for an initial appearance.
Ormsby, 21, has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to three counts of murder and an arson charge in connection with the stabbing deaths of Jeffrey Ryan, 55, Ryan’s son Jesse, 10, and Ryan family friend Jason Dehahn, 30, all of Amity, on June 22, 2010. They were found dead about 27 hours after the killings at the Ryans’ home on U.S. Route 1, according to police.
Gaudet was identified as being the nephew of Robert Dehahn, the father of victim Jason Dehahn.
The defendant was arrested on July 2, 2010, in Dover, N.H.
He has been held without bail at the Aroostook County Jail since he was returned to Maine on July 12, 2010.
More than a dozen family and friends of the victims attended the trial Monday. Dehahn’s wife, Crystal Dehahn, 25, of Hodgdon; his brother, Jake Dehahn, 28, and father, Robert Dehahn, 55, both of Amity, testified briefly about their search for Jason Dehahn, who did not return home for supper after taking his ATV to visit Jeffrey Ryan before taking seats in the courtroom.
Many of them returned for the second day of the trial in Aroostook County Superior Court.
Jesse Ryan’s mother, Jamie Merrill, 31, of Lewiston, did not attend the trial Monday.
After the delay Tuesday morning, the state police detectives who collected evidence at the scene of the triple-homicide in Amity nearly two years ago took the stand.
Detectives Elmer Farren and Jay Pelletier both testified about finding three half-empty beer bottles and a cigarette with a long ash on it in an ashtray in Jeffrey Ryan’s trailer. The DNA from one of the bottles and the cigarette butt were traced to Ormsby, according to prosecutors.
Technicians from the Maine State Crime Lab are scheduled Tuesday afternoon to testify about the testing of the beer bottles, the cigarette butt and other evidence.
Ormsby grew up in Ellsworth and went to Ellsworth High School until he dropped out his senior year. At the time of the killings, he was living with Robert, 65, and Joy Strout, 63, in Orient, according to previously published reports.
Strout pleaded guilty in October to hindering apprehension and arson in connection with Ormsby’s case. The older man admitted helping Ormsby set fire to Jeffrey Ryan’s pickup truck the day after the slayings to cover up evidence and taking Ormsby to New Hampshire to stay with Strout’s son. He is expected to be sentenced after testifying against Ormsby.
Shortly after Ormsby was arrested, Robert Strout, who is free on bail, reportedly said Ormsby told him the killings followed a confrontation over a $10,000 drug debt owed to a third party. The defendant killed Dehahn and the boy after he killed Jeffrey Ryan because they could identify him, Stokes told the jury Monday.
The prosecutor also said that Ormsby confessed to the killings during a police interview that was recorded on video. That interview will be shown to the jury later this week, he said.
Defense attorney James M. Dunleavy of Presque Isle called the deaths in Amity “tragic, horrible and horrific.”
“The defense will put into context the events of June 22 and 23,” he told jurors in his brief opening statement Monday.
Because of his insanity plea, Ormsby will be tried in two phases. In the first and longer phase, the jury will be asked to find whether he is guilty of the charges on which he has been indicted. If he is found guilty, the jury will hear evidence as to his state of mind at the time of the crime. Jurors then will be asked to determine whether Ormsby was criminally responsible for his actions.
If the jury finds he was insane when the crimes were committed, Ormsby would not be sent to prison but to the Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta for an undetermined amount of time. If jurors find him guilty and sane, Ormsby would face a sentence of between 25 years and life in prison on each of the murder charges. He would face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of arson.
Judges are allowed to impose life sentences in Maine under specific circumstances. One of them is being convicted of multiple murders.
The trial is scheduled to conclude on April 20.
If one is man enough to kill two men and a boy, man enough to hide the evidence, man enough to run away, and then man enough to admit said crimes, why not just man up and take the consequences?
That, sir, is what an honorable man would do. This person is a murderer.
So is it dis honorable to follow and live by our Constitution? Is that what your saying?
>>>>
I got beat up for my earlier comments concerning the location of the trial. Who knows how many other”concerned citizens” are out there .This unfortunate incident could have happened in Portland or Bangor as well. However, if more distractions such as this happen- security could become an issue-perhaps tainting the entire process. I hope the court system and law enforcement as a whole have a handle on this situation. There may be other people out in the community with an axe to grind.
Time to sequester the jury,then no one can make comments to them and the defense wont be able to “cry fowl”…….
If someone beat you up, you should report it to police immedia—- oh wait, you didn’t really get beaten up. I get it. It was an idiom.
I never thought about something like that being a crime obviously it is. I hope they are not to hard on him, in situations like that it is hard to maintain a civil composure.
Free speech! Come on! If you don’t want jurors hearing comments, escort them into the building.
defense: they’ll have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt this man knew he was talking to a member of the jury……heck…he could easily have thought he was talking to another person who was there to watch the trial.
“I hope YOU hang the bastard.”
Yeah, he probably thought he was the donut delivery guy.
How about you actually read the first amendment and case law before trying to claim it is free speech? Are you one of those people who tried to claim it is free speech if someone threatens to kill someone, or yells “fire” in s crowded theater?
Well, well, well… Didn’t they clean up Mr Ormsby’s image!
Yep, send him to Augusta and he’ll be on the streets again in 5-10 as long as he promises to take his meds.
Although Nutting was arrested for criminal threatening with a firearm, neither he or the other 2 people you mention murdered anyone, let alone 3 of them. Your post is totally pointless.
villify the victims.
gotta love this country’s definition of “justice”
Were I Al’s lawyer, I would argue that the average citizen might not be aware of such an esoteric law. A simple sign on that same courthouse door stating CONVERSATION WITH JURORS IS A VIOLATION OF MAINE STATE LAW might have saved everyone a lot of time, money and hassle. I would ask the judge to throw the case out. Instead, they may choose to make an example of him to publicize a little-known law.
Haha, “Maine state law”, are you kidding me, you’d get laughed out of court, no state permits this.
“Little-known law” ! REALLY ? I mean, REALLY ?
Hilarious.
Roostook…if common sense is your idea of humor, then your post makes sense. Otherwise, it doesn’t. As for states “permitting this,” if the law is on the books, it should be posted and referenced, thus preventing potential debacles like Al’s.
…Nice try, except that it also explicitly states in the MRSA (Maine Revised Statutes Annotated), and in every other state’s criminal code, that ignorance of the law is not a defense for violating the law. If you live here, it is your responsibility to know the laws (which are freely available online or in a library).
Again, many, if not MOST people are unaware of the law. No one is going to go sit in a library and do research before attending the trial of a friend or loved one. Obviously Al was unaware of the law. A sign ON THE COURTROOM door referencing the law could have prevented this.
Incidents like this are exactly why we have a process and juries, this isn’t about “free speech”; you keep your big mouth shut at the courthouse.
The trail has barely even started and it’s VERY clear that people are determined to subvert the whole process.
People in these comments sections on this trial have advocated for jury tampering, lying, and subverting the process; keep it up; he’ll get a mistrial because of your eagerness to get a conviction and conceal the role of ALL the people that were involved in this crime.
Reasonable doubt is all it takes, keep handing it to the jury !
And then there will be no end to all the whining from the same people who encouraged it !
This guy is about as insane as every other murderer!! —For some, it seems to work!
Gaudet may be bunking with Ormsby.
While I dont condone what this man did I do understand why he did it. His emotions got away from him. I cant imagine what it must be like to watch the murder trial of someone who is believed to have killed my relative.
I hope Mr. Gaudet pleads he had an irresistible impulse to shout, “Hang the bastard!” Why should Ormsby be the only one allowed to plead an insanity defense?
Deep sneakers he was just making a comment. Not knowing who he made it to. Give my Nephew a break it was his cousin that was murdered, how would you feel?
Maine courts do not allow capital punishment, and have not within living memory of anyone. So I don’t see how a comment like this could do any harm, since the juror who heard it couldn’t “hang the bastard” even if he wanted to.
I think the DA is over-reacting too much – the charge in this case won’t stand up in a court of law.
Im glad he got caught right away,just think if the trial went to the end and ormsby got convicted only to find out someone tampered with a jury.That would have cost the taxpayers of maine untold tens thousands of dollars to fight an appeal by the defense and a new trial.That would be a real disservice to the family of the victims,jurors and the people of maine.
I don’t see how making an offhanded comment to a juror can be considered “tampering.”
Tampering seems like it would require an action to persuade a juror in one direction or another, not just making a statement of obvious opinion.