SKOWHEGAN, Maine — A trial that has been 32 years in the making will begin this week.
The trial of Jay Mercier, 56, of Industry will begin on Thursday in Somerset County Superior Court. Jury selection will be on Wednesday. Mercier pleaded not guilty on Oct. 6, 2011.
Mercier is charged with murder in connection with the death of 20-year-old Rita St. Peter, who was found dead off Campground Road in Anson on July 5, 1980.
Brenda Kielty, spokeswoman for the Maine attorney general’s office, said it’s the oldest case tried by the state since Thomas Mitchell Jr. was convicted of the 1983 stabbing death of Judith Flagg in 2009.
Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson will prosecute the case. Kielty said the state has 34 witnesses and expects the trial to last six to seven days.
Skowhegan attorneys John Alsop of Alsop and Mohlar and John Martin will defend Mercier as co-councils.
Because the case is 32 years old, both sides will face challenges different from those in fresher cases, said Alsop.
“There are a lot of witnesses that are no longer around, favorable and unfavorable [to us],” said Alsop. “There are sketchy memories. Those are the kinds of things one would expect.”
According to an affidavit filed by Maine State Police Detective Bryant Jacques, St. Peter was last seen alive during the late evening hours of July 4, 1980, near the bridge leading from Madison to Anson. Her body was found about 500 feet off Campground Road in Anson during the early morning hours the next day.
Snow-tire-type tire tracks were found near St. Peter’s body. An autopsy report said St. Peter was run over by a vehicle, but some of her injuries were caused by a different weapon, said Jacques in the affidavit. Sexual contact samples were taken during the autopsy.
Witnesses told police that Mercier was seen in his 1980 GMC pickup truck in the general area during the general time when St. Peter left a bar to walk or hitchhike home.
Police received written consent from Mercier to search his truck on July 6, 1980. Ink impressions were taken from the tires.
Forensic scientist Alicia Wilcox examined photos of the tire impressions taken at the crime scene and compared them to the known test impressions from Mercier’s vehicle, said Jacques in the affidavit.
In Wilcox’s report, dated March 25, 2006, she “noted that two of the partial impressions photographed at the scene had the same tread pattern as the outside portion of the rear tires said to have come from Mercier’s truck,” read the affidavit.
Jacques met with Mercier at his Anson residence on Jan. 15, 2010, to discuss the investigation. Mercier told Jacques that he knew who St. Peter was, but never met her, dated her, had her in his truck or had sex with her, according to the affidavit.
Mercier had discarded cigarettes he was smoking near the roadway. After the meeting, Jacques collected a cigarette butt and delivered it to the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory in Augusta.
Forensic DNA analyst Cathy MacMillan examined a DNA sample retrieved from St. Peter’s body and the cigarette butt obtained from Mercier, the affidavit said. She found that DNA profiles were consistent as having originated from St. Peter and Mercier.
Another DNA sample was collected from Mercier after a search warrant, Jacques said in the affidavit.
In the June 8, 2011, report, MacMillan concluded “to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty” that the sperm found on a sample taken from St. Peter’s body matched that of Mercier.
The “estimated probability of selecting an unrelated individual at random from the FBI Caucasian or the FBI African American population having a DNA profile matching Jay Mercier’s twelve locus DNA profile is less than 1 in 300 billion,” MacMillan said in the affidavit.
A Somerset County grand jury indicted Mercier for murder on Sept. 16, 2011. He was arrested at his home on Sept. 28. He was denied bail in January.
With the DNA match-up odds at 1 in 3 billion, a Maine jury and judge will surely let the creep go.
More than likely.
I’m sure there’ll be arguement that the dna has degraded tremendously as well, if that’s how they’re convinced this guy did it. If by a print out of the dna markers, I’m sure they’ll argue that technology has advanced and an old dna profile can’t be reliable. Whatever the case may be, if he’s guilty, I’m very happy to hear a cold case may have been solved. :)
and if you were not the guy, I can assure you would be grateful…..its the law…innocent until PROVEN guilty…..it applies sir…please learn our laws…..
It said one in 300 billion . That being said almost nothing is 1 in 300 billion . Sp,etime people are framed more like one in a million.
It’s good of Law Enforcement to never have given up on this case, and excellent forensic work finally tied the prime suspect to the murder! May she rest in peace now, and may he pay the price long, long overdue. Congratulations to all who made that a possibility.
sounds like you have made your decision….on circumstantial evidence and great media……may your family member never throw a tissue nor a butt out the window nor have a laboratory tech who may owe a favor to anyone….plus , tire tracks from a GMC ?? As a potential defender , I would ask this question …..if this was such a locked up case …open and shut as it were….then, why did the resolution take 32 years ?? simple question……answer it please…..cause my daddy told me never believe my eyes nor ears,,,that is how they fool us…………………………….correct…
Maybe the same sort of progress could be made on the Joyce McClain murder.
I was thinking the samething Jbuck41!!
If I remember correctly, the biggest problem with the Joyce McClain case, is that it rained before her body was found, washing away the evidence that would convict a killer. It’s hard to make progress when you don’t have anything to work with from the beginning.
If I am thinking of a different case, any RESPECTFUL posts pointing that out will be acknowledged by me.
I understand that and wasn’t trying to be critical of the McClain investigation.
I never once thought you were trying to be critical. It’s like comparing apples to oranges though, in my opinion. There was evidence collected, and preserved in the case this article outlines, therefore there was just a waiting game until a match popped up. Unfortunately, unless someone walks into a PD and says “I killed Joyce McClain, and this is how…” I don’t think it will get solved. My heart aches for that woman’s mother. I don’t know if I could go on if something happened to my child, and there was virtuously no chance of finding out who did it.
Death Penalty in Maine PLEASE
yeah please kill me now…..I could be up there with Jesus eating lobster with streets paved with gold, however I am down here battling evil doers…it aint all of the fun it is cracked up to be…..as Bible christians we are instructed not to kill……if you do not understand, please google for Bible instructions……….or, did you simply grow up as a wolf with no guidance you knife wielding fiend ?? we are to pay back hate with kindness…..it brings the bad ones to their knees in tears…a great lesson…..try to learn from the Master…..thanks..
Massachusetts just became one of the toughest states to be a criminal:
http://news.yahoo.com/massachusetts-governor-signs-three-strikes-bill-220359627.html
Massachusetts would gain my respect more, if they actually kept violent offenders in jail for their entire FIRST sentence, rather than letting them out to offend again.
The individual who killed the woman that got the ball rolling on this law was a repeat violent offender. However, it was the death of a police officer by an individual who had previously been sentenced to THREE LIFE TERMS, and was let out on PAROLE, that had the bigger influence on getting it pushed through. Sentence to three life terms, and LET GO???????
Lets not forget the murder of Amy Drake of Skowhegan:
“Amy Drake’s killer still unidentified after 6 years – Skowhegan, ME”
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
September 28, 2009 Monday
Three years after death, killer still unidentified;
Police say people have information they haven’t reported about the 2006 slaying of Amy Drake.
It has been three years since Amy Drake of Skowhegan disappeared without taking her purse or even a change of clothes.
Drake, then 18, was reported missing by her mother, Norma Drake, on Sept. 24, 2006, according to police.
Two months later, deer hunters found her body in an area of woods and fields off River Road in Norridgewock, some two miles from the Skowhegan town line.
State police investigators ruled her death a homicide. Drake, who would have turned 19 on Nov. 22 of that year, left behind a 2-year-old child, Torence Drake.
No one has been charged with her murder.
Wright said the primary investigator, Detective Chris Tremblay, returns to the Skowhegan area, re-interviewing people police already have talked to, hoping someone will come forward and help.
He said Detective Sgt. Daniel Summers of the Skowhegan Police Department also remains active in the investigation.
”Even as recently as the past couple of weeks, we have had some information come in from various sources, and they’re following up on that to see if there is any viability to the information,” Wright said.
Drake also would spend time at the home of her boyfriend, Jason Forbus, who lived on South Factory Street in Skowhegan, Summers said Friday.
Forbus, now 34, was sentenced in late September 2006 to a six-month jail term for assaulting Drake. He had been released after pleading guilty to a domestic assault against Drake, and he had not yet started his sentence when she was last seen, police said.
He also was required to serve two years’ probation after his release.
Court records showed that Forbus had contact with Drake after his arrest in connection with the July 2 incident, in violation of his bail conditions.
At his sentencing, however, Forbus was given a stay that allowed him to remain free until Oct. 9
Wright and Summers said anyone with information on Drake’s death is urged to call state police at 624-7143, or go to the state police Web site, http://www.maine.gov/dps/msp, click on ”criminal investigations” and then the box to report a crime.
”We feel there are several people out there who have pertinent information that has not been brought forward,” Wright said.
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