CUSHING, Maine — Maine State Police have charged a Tenants Harbor man with murder in connection with the shooting death of a Cushing man Thursday night.
In custody is 40-year-old Andrew Kierstead, who is being held Friday morning for evaluation at Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said in a press release. McCausland said Friday that Kierstead was being treated for an unspecified medical issue.
Kierstead is charged in connection with the death of 48-year-old Richard Mills of Far Meadow Lane in Cushing, according to the release.
The Maine Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta said late Friday that Mills died from multiple gunshot wounds and declared the death a homicide. The autopsy was performed Friday.
Kierstead was taken into custody by Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputies after they were called to the scene shortly before 8 p.m., the release said.
State police detectives worked through the night gathering evidence, processing the scene and conducting interviews, McCausland said.
The two men knew each other, according to McCausland.
A Maine State Trooper remained stationed at the end of the driveway of 40 Far Meadow Lane on Friday morning with yellow tape stretched across the driveway.
Far Meadow Lane is a dirt road off Route 97 with eight homes on it. Mills’ home is tucked away in a wooded area and cannot be seen from the other homes.
Mills lived alone, according to McCausland.
Nobody was around at any of the nearby homes on Friday morning.
Kierstead has no recent criminal record. The only court listing for him is an arrest in November 2011 for failure to appear for a contempt hearing from small claims court over a $112 bill to Montgomery Oil. He was later fined in Rockland District Court for the failure to appear.
A neighbor to Kierstead, Jonathan Bailey, said he was shocked by the news when informed of the arrest Friday morning. Kierstead worked as a carpenter, according to Bailey. He said he knew he was working sporadically.
Bailey said Kierstead was pleasant and although he did not know him well, they would wave to each other as they picked up their mail from their mailboxes.
No initial court appearance has been scheduled pending his release from the hospital. The earliest is expected to be Monday in Rockland District Court.
Condolences to Mr. Mills’ family and friends.
Sad another murder in the state. Sad for the families involved and sad for the state of Maine,because if he is found guilty we haven’t a death penalty.
And even if he’s not found guilty we still don’t have a death penalty.
The death penalty costs taxpayers more than a life sentence in a maximum security prison. It has never been shown to deter crime. Murderers don’t think, “Gee, I better not kill this guy, because I’ll get death instead of a life sentence.” The death penalty is irreversible and puts entirely too much trust in a flawed judicial system. There is no good reason for Maine to adopt the death penalty. Emotional satisfaction is not worth the costs and complications.
Respectfully disagree, Hank. There are crimes that warrant a death penalty. Premeditated murder; kidnapping; and as far as I am concerned, sexual abuse of a child. There would need to be exact definitions, like DNA, or witness requirements, or others I havent thought through, but some crimes are so horrendous, the perpatrator doesnt deserve to live on our dime the rest of his life.
You know, this is a valid point — that some crimes deserve the death penalty. The sense of moral outrage is real. I do believe it’s outweighed by the arguments against the death penalty, though. It IS more costly to execute someone than to house him in prison for life; that is the exact reason that New Mexico abolished its death penalty.
I disagree with your opinion that it’s never proven to be a deterrent. It is the best deterrent we have in our criminal justice system. Research the facts and compare murder rates in states that have the death penalty and those that don’t. You’re going to see a remarkedly lower rate in the states that have capital punishment. The cost is far less to taxpayers than providing the housing, food, medical costs etc. of a murderer for the rest of his or her life. If you take another’s life, you forfeit your own. That is justice.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates
Deterrence: States Without the Death Penalty Have Had Consistently Lower Murder Rates
These stats mean very little in support of your argument as they do not control for differences in population make up. I do not think Maine should adopt the death penalty but I do blieve it should be up to the states.
Having said that there are murders that are so horrific that I think the perp should be put to death so I would not object to laws that allowed the death penalty under limited circumstances here in Maine.
then provide us with a link to your stats and info, please.
Clearly you need to look at the states and their population, overall crime rates, etc. I think you’ll find that overall crime is far less an issue in Maine, Alaska, Hawaii, etc.? Statistics are great for making a case when you don’t show all the variables.
A recent survey of the most leading criminologists in the country from found that the overwhelming majority did not believe that the death penalty is a proven deterrent to homicide. Eighty-eight percent of the country’s top criminologists do not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide, according to a new study published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology and authored by Professor Michael Radelet, Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and Traci Lacock, also at Boulder.
Similarly, 87% of the expert criminologists believe that abolition of the death penalty would not have any significant effect on murder rates. In addition, 75% of the respondents agree that “debates about the death penalty distract Congress and state legislatures from focusing on real solutions to crime problems.”
The survey relied on questionnaires completed by the most pre-eminent criminologists in the country, including Fellows in the American Society of Criminology; winners of the American Society of Criminology’s prestigious Southerland Award; and recent presidents of the American Society of Criminology. Respondents were not asked for their personal opinion about the death penalty, but instead to answer on the basis of their understandings of the empirical research.
(M. Radelet and T. Lacock, DO EXECUTIONS LOWER HOMICIDE RATES?: THE VIEWS OF LEADING CRIMINOLOGISTS, 99 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 489 2009)
To read the study, click here http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/files/DeterrenceStudy2009.pdf
Uhmmm yeah they’re an unbiased group right? That’s like taking a survey for alternative energy outside a Whole Foods.
I am not saying the death penalty is or is not a deterrence. I am simply saying that your stats do not support your case.
Starting out with your source one finds NH with the death penalty has a lower murder rate than ME without. Population makeup is similar although NH has a somewhat lower median age. One would expect therefore that they would have a higher murder rate but they don’t (young people kill more often than old people). Could the death penalty be the difference?
Utah has about the lowest median age (under 30 whereas ME is over 40) in the country so you would expect a very high murder rate but it is in fact very low and is a death penalty state. Could the death penalty be the difference? Same median age in Indiana (a death penalty state) as New Mexico ( a non death penalty state) but Indiana has a much lower murder rate.
The point is you can’t just throw out by state data and make any case without looking at the makeup of the states you are comparing.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/su6001a14.htm http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content//homicide/teens.cfm
Up until recently I was for capital punishment. However, the recent situation in MA regarding mishandling of lab evidence, along with apparently false “expert” testimony in serious criminal trials caused me to change my mind. One innocent person executed is one too many. But which one is it? My conclusion is that a life sentence is the choice…tough living for the rest of ones life and maybe not what the victims would prefer, but which one is the innocent death row inmate? When might evidence be flawed? You cannot unchange death.
You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. Texas has a much higher crime rate than Maine; the U.S. has a much higher crime rate than all the nations of Western Europe, which have abolished the death penalty. And it is indisputably more expensive to execute a convict than to house him in prison for life. At least one state has abolished the death penalty for this very reason.
Texas also has far greater population, thus all the associated issues with it, not to mention the border it shares with Mexico which makes TX a hotbed of drug activity. No one can prove the death penalty has worked, because we don’t have the convicted felon alive to prove he/she would have committed another crime. Pretty simple logic, you cannot prove something when a key variable is missing. You can prove however that allowed back into society some violent felons do re-offend, thus we can prove that dead felons don’t commit crimes and those whom are released may.
A recent survey of the most leading criminologists in the country found that the overwhelming majority did not believe that the death penalty is a proven deterrent to homicide. Eighty-eight percent of the country’s top criminologists do not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide, according to a new study published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology and authored by Professor Michael Radelet, Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and Traci Lacock, also at Boulder.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-about-deterrence-and-death-penalty
Saying criminologists don’t believe in the death penalty is like saying wind farmers believe reducing our dependence on foreign oil is important-no duh!
Here’s an indisputable fact: Those offenders who have been put to death per the death penalty have never committed another offense. The same cannot be said of even those who never leave the prison until their own death, as they have hurt or killed other prisoners or staff.
Comment withdrawn.
The biggest downside to the death penalty is how juries are affected. Are you as a group as likely to come to a guilty verdict when everyone knows that the defendants life will be taken? Will the guilty walk away when juries are hung? The bar is a little higher for “beyond a reasonable doubt” in those states with a death penalty.
No worries with the oil bill this winter or many to come, heat will be included in his next home.
Okay people, just choose the form of punishment which is the most cost-effective. That’s exactly the way fascists want you to be thinking. I still have my ideals when it comes to liberty and justice for all. I don’t think the death penalty is completely ruled out in order to achieve that.
PNB…I agree that the death penalty issue should not be decided on cost effectiveness alone. I object on moral grounds. So you and I offset each other.
For those of you who are arguing the death penalty debate here-
Rather than have Maine implement the death penalty, which DOES cost the taxpayers more than a life sentence as hankwilliams stated, how about we make prison such a terrible place, that people aren’t ‘ok’ with being sentenced to life there? No cable tv, internet, free college, or whatever else they have that is considered an ‘extra’ on the outside and done without by so many people who choose whether to provide food or heat for their families in the winter time. Perhaps if prison became a terrible place to be, people would think twice about doing things that would land them there.
well said.
I think you overestimate the wonderfulness of prison. I suspect it’s pretty terrible already.
yeah, it must pretty awful to have cable tv, video games, 3 square meals a day, clean clothes, etc. The only thing is that they aren’t allowed to leave the prison…
You are wrong
Absolutely brilliantly said!!!!!!
Makes sense, add in using the “new” no taste” food substitute that ensure general health, but provides no flavor or consistency variation and we’d have a reason for people not to go to or return to prison. It’s commonly considered that in most larger maximum security prisons the gangs are far more in control than the guards. Our prison system reinforces gang membership and violence and creates releasees whom are indebted to gangs for protection while inside.
Should we first find out what exactly happened between Mr. Mills and Mr. Kierstead?
Yeah, does anyone know what happened between the two to cause the murder? People are jumping to conclusions before anyone even knows the details!
What to hell happen here?
You’ve obviously never been sodomized in a jail cell, have you?
I am from that county. I recently moved to another county. And in knox county there has been huge bath salts usage. There have been tons of break-ins in and around that area and across the river in port clyde. NO work, and as you can see he didn’t pay his heat bill. Many in that county without jobs now. So it has to be one of those that caused the killing. And the reason our country is in the mess it is NONE OF YOU HAVE THE CAHONAS TO DO ANYTHING but sit and whine about it.. If you ask me we should be like the cowboy days.. eye for an eye without court.. then that would get people on their toes..