BANGOR, Maine — The local transient police say mortally stabbed another man during a group fight on First Street in May was indicted Wednesday by the Penobscot County grand jury.
Jason Alan Trickett, 41, is charged with manslaughter in the mortal stabbing of Andy D. Smith, 38, near 69 First St. about 1:45 p.m. May 22. Smith, who is survived by his wife and two children, later died at Eastern Maine Medical Center.
Trickett reportedly teared up when he finally admitted to Bangor police detectives that he had stabbed Smith, whom he described as a friend.
“Trickett said that he was friends with Andy [Smith] and had no intention of stabbing him at all,” said an affidavit written by Bangor police Detective Brent Beaulieu. “He said that he was just pushing him away and the stabbing was an accident.”
Trickett also told police that he and his friends at the apartment building at 71 First St., which is where the knife was later located in a trash can, “all were drinking or using narcotics,” the court document said.
Trickett was arrested on June 8 aboard a city bus in downtown Bangor. His bail was set at $50,000 during his first appearance in court later that day. He entered no plea.
Trickett, who was wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and had various tattoos visible on his arms and the back of his neck, did not say a word during the hearing.
Trickett was represented in court by defense attorney Marvin Glazier. Another lawyer, Hunter Tzovarras, also was at the defendant’s table and could be seen discussing matters with Trickett. Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson is the lead prosecutor for the state.
An eyewitness and friend of Smith told the Bangor Daily News that Smith was arguing with a woman he once lived with out in the street when another woman intervened.
The second woman, who lives at 71 First St., “came out with a two-by-four and she hit him,” apparently in defense of the first woman, said Eugene “Shawn” Cox, a resident of 69 First St.
“He got the two-by-four away from her and she called for her friends. They all started on him.”
Seconds later, Smith was bleeding from a wound to his left rib area and was trying to get away. Cox did not see who stabbed his friend, whom he had met in middle school.
“I ran down with a pipe” and met Smith at the bottom of the steps, he said.
The last thing Smith said to his longtime friend was “to tell his kids that he loved them,” Cox said.
Smith was a 1992 graduate of Hermon High School and had studied at the University of Maine at Augusta in Bangor, then known as the University College of Bangor, according to his obituary.
Trickett appeared in Bangor Daily News court listings for drug-related offenses in 2005, 2010 and 2011.
RIP Andy……..
I’m not sure how the laws read so I may be totally off on this, but I don’t see how this could be manslaughter and not murder. I don’t believe for a second this was an accident. Where did the knife come from? It didn’t jump into his hand all by itself. He either had it in his pocket and pulled it out or he brought it into the street from the apartment. Can someone explain this to me please?
Statements made by Trickett indicate that he did not intend to cause the death of his victim. In order to prove murder, the State must prove malice aforethought. The State would have a very difficult or impossible job to prove murder in light of statements that Trickett has made.
Thank you for clarifying that for me. I still have a hard time believing it was an accident since he had to have gotten the knife from somewhere. It’s sad that all someone has to say is “I didn’t mean to” and the charge drops down to manslaughter.
If further evidence comes to light that shows beyond a reasonable doubt that he planned the attack/assault on his victim that contradicts his statements or witnesses statements the charge could be one of murder. It’s not likely given that the investigation seems to be completed now. Manslaughter is effectively a lesser included offense if all the proof requirements for murder cannot be fulfilled. Perhaps stabbing his victim twice shows some level of intent on his part, but would a jury think so?
So then by using the knife, he only intended on carving his initials in the guys amdomen, not killing him?? I agree with the first poster…this is a total crock.
some friend
Too many drugs in this town!!!!
…Welcome, become a transient, do drugs, rip people off until you don’t care, maybe you’ll even kill someone! Maine, they way life shouldn’t be.
The best way to become a transient is do something wrong. They throw the word out there like it makes Bangor look better. Half of these so called transients are residents if Bangor, do you have to live here for a year to be called a resident? You don’t even have to live here a week and you get welfare and health insurance. Honestly if we made eligibility requirements on housing, welfare, health care and methesone clinics Bangor would shrink by 20% and there would be hardly any trare ansients