ROCKLAND, Maine — A Maine State Prison inmate accused of killing another prisoner by stabbing him 87 times and then planning to kill a guard is expected to plead not criminally responsible because of mental health problems.
The plea would have occurred Friday but there was a miscommunication that led to Richard Stahursky not being brought to the Knox County Courthouse for the hearing.
Defense attorney Philip Cohen said in court Friday that Stahursky would be entering a plea of not criminally responsible. Cohen asked the court to order a mental health examination of his client by the state.
Justice Daniel Billings agreed to order the evaluation, the results of which first will be presented to the defense. If Stahursky enters the not criminally responsible plea, then the prosecution will be provided the report as well.
Billings said the plea could be entered in January.
Cohen said that Stahursky, 36, also known as Richard Clement, also had withdrawn his earlier request to the court to represent himself.
When Stahursky initially was questioned by police for the Feb. 28 slaying of 37-year-old Micah Boland at the prison in Warren, he said he would not enter an insanity plea because he knew what he was doing when he killed the man.
Stahursky is charged with murder, attempted murder and possession of prison contraband, which in this case was a homemade knife known as a shank, according to court documents.
A police affidavit filed in the case states that Stahursky stabbed Boland 87 times and beat him in Boland’s cell. Stahursky claimed that he sought out Boland after conducting his own investigation within the prison to find out who made allegations that he improperly passed items from one prison pod to another living area. Stahursky said the false allegations cost him his job as a hallway worker.
When he was apprehended for Boland’s death, prison officials say Stahursky had another homemade knife and had labeled it as the weapon he was going to use to kill a specific corrections officer.
The prisoner claims he was transferred over his objections to the “B-Pod,” a section of the prison that includes inmates serving time for sex offenses. Stahursky said he had voiced his dislike of sex offenders to prison officials.
Stahursky was indicted in April. Boland had served six years of a 22-year sentence imposed in 2008 in Waldo County Superior Court for gross sexual assault against a 4-year-old girl in Liberty.
Cohen took over defense of Stahursky more than two months ago after the state prisoner claimed he was fearful his prior attorney Christopher MacLean of Camden was trying to kill him. MacLean has dismissed those claims.
Stahursky originally was sentenced in 2002 to nearly 20 years in prison for an armed robbery of a Mainway convenience store in Fort Fairfield. At the time of that robbery, he also was wanted by police in Connecticut on a larceny charge.
He was convicted of two separate stabbings of inmates with shanks prior to 2012 and for arson in 2004 for setting a fire at the prison.
Stahursky was sentenced in December 2012 to an additional eight years in prison for assaulting a guard. At that time, Stahursky asked Justice Jeffrey Hjelm to impose the maximum 10 years.