ROCKLAND, Maine — A Maine State Prison inmate accused of killing another prisoner by stabbing him 87 times and then planning to kill a guard pleaded not criminally responsible Monday because of insanity.
The hearing lasted for less than five minutes in Knox County Superior Court.
Justice Daniel Billings told Richard Stahursky that he will need to cooperate with state forensic psychologists, who will perform mental health evaluations. Their reports will be presented to the defense and state.
Prosecutor John Alsop said the state will contest the claim of insanity.
When 36-year-old Stahursky initially was questioned by police after the Feb. 28 slaying of 37-year-old Micah Boland at the prison in Warren, Stahursky said he would not enter an insanity plea because he knew what he was doing when he killed Boland.
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 said 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 in connection with 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.
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 denied 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.