BELFAST, Maine — A young man whose attack on his girlfriend last spring was thwarted by a neighbor has been sentenced to serve a year in prison. The neighbor told the BDN she “felt like a mama bear” when she helped the victim escape.
Devin Aldus, 19, of Searsmont was sentenced to four years with all but 12 months suspended after pleading guilty earlier this month to several charges associated with the March 8 attack on the young woman. Aldus pleaded guilty Oct. 6 to domestic violence reckless conduct, refusing to submit to arrest or detention, domestic violence assault and criminal restraint.
A charge of domestic violence criminal threatening was dismissed by Justice Robert Murray of the Waldo County Superior Court.
Neighbor Melissa Lamont McGaw said last March that she heard the young woman screaming, got into her car and sped a quarter mile to the residence where the attack was happening.
“It was loud and long, and the kind of screaming you know you have to react to,” she told the BDN then.
Lamont McGaw said she saw Aldus fighting with the young woman on the snow, and that she got out of her car to try to pull him off. She did manage to get the girlfriend into her car, but by the time she ran around to the driver’s seat, Aldus reportedly had opened the passenger’s side door and had started attacking the young woman again.
“I started taking off and rolled the window up on his fingers,” Lamont McGaw, who was called a hero by police after the incident, said. “I did not feel like a hero. I felt like a mama bear.”
Police said that the domestic assault had begun earlier that day, when Aldus threw the young woman down on the bed. The victim told police that he stabbed the bed next to her head, threatened to kill her and her family and took her phone when she tried to call 911. According to the police report filed in connection with the incident, officers found cut marks in the bed and also collected a knife at the scene.
The young woman told police that when she tried to get away from Aldus, he picked her up and started to carry her back to the house.
When police arrived at the scene and moved to arrest Aldus, he fought them, and they ended up restraining him and calling for backup.
After Aldus is released from prison, the probation conditions levied by the judge specify that he have no contact with the victim or with Lamont McGaw or her husband. Aldus also must pay $95 in victim’s fees and participate in a batterer’s intervention program.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence and would like to talk with an advocate, call 866-834-4357, TRS800-787-3224. This free, confidential service is available 24/7 and is accessible from anywhere in Maine.