BATH, Maine — After a three-day trial and three-hour deliberation, the Sagadahoc County Superior Court jury on Tuesday found a Phippsburg man with an extensive criminal record guilty of domestic violence assault of a 67-year-old woman but acquitted him of the more severe charge of aggravated assault.
Joseph Marco, 45, was arrested April 23, 2014, at his home after an altercation that prosecutors said included strangling the victim — “the intentional impeding of breathing or circulation” — which under a new Maine law elevates the crime to Class B aggravated assault.
After hearing testimony from witnesses — but not Marco — the jury found Marco guilty only of the lesser felony of Class C domestic violence assault.
Assistant District Attorney Patricia Mador told the jury that Marco — who also is under indictment for bartering his antipsychotic medication for food while in jail — came downstairs into the kitchen that day “in a rage [and] grabbed her by the throat and rammed her up against the countertop,” causing the victim’s head to hit a cabinet.
The victim testified that the confrontation was triggered when she discovered a woman in the home who was forbidden to be there.
Another witness testified that he unsuccessfully tried to pull Marco off the victim after “he grabbed her by the throat with his hands.” The man said Marco told him he would kill him, and that he then received “50 to 60” telephone calls from Marco telling him to tell police that he tripped over a box and “collided” with the victim.
Phippsburg Police Chief John Skroski testified Friday that he went to Marco’s home the morning of the altercation after receiving a phone call from the victim, whom Skroski described as scared. The chief said he rushed to the call because of his history with Marco, noting, “I’ve been to that residence so many times.”
Skroski testified that he saw — and Mador introduced into evidence photographs of — red abrasions on the victim’s neck. Skroski said the victim “couldn’t talk very well,” and he felt a large “egg” on the back of her head.
A physician who examined the victim two days later testified to the “abrasions,” and a forensic medical examiner told the jury that trauma to the neck and the injury to her neck were consistent with the prosecution’s account.
But Marco’s attorney, Christopher Ledwick, argued that Marco was acting in defense of the woman, and he said the victim’s hoarseness could have resulted from her pack-a-day smoking habit. He said that if there was no damage to the trachea or swelling of the neck, it was unlikely that a man as large as Marco — who stands 6-foot-1, according to criminal records, and who Ledwick said weighs 300 pounds — wouldn’t have caused more injury had he strangled the victim.
Ledwick said Marco was not guilty of aggravated assault because “that’s mortal combat — a fight to the death. This was a tiny kitchen with three people, and one of them is 300 pounds.”
In her closing on Tuesday, Mador told the jury that their “common sense and collective understanding of human nature ” would allow them to evaluate the witnesses’ credibility.
After the verdict, Justice Andrew Horton returned Marco to Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset, where he has been since his arrest in April 2014.
In December, Marco was indicted for felony trafficking in prison contraband and the misdemeanors of unlawful trafficking of scheduled drugs and violation of conditions of release for allegedly trading his antipsychotic medication for food.
Marco has served time at the Maine Correctional Facility in Windham for felony charges including theft, assault on an officer and terrorizing. He also has been convicted of misdemeanors, including assault, harassment by telephone and terrorizing.
Ledwick, who also represents Marco on those and other pending charges, said Tuesday afternoon that his client declined the prosecution’s plea offer of a sentence “in the neighborhood of 10 years,” and that he hopes that Marco’s sentence will include treatment for his illness, on which Ledwick would not elaborate.
“We would love [a sentence] that ensures he takes his medication,” Ledwick said.
Mador declined to comment after the verdict. Sentencing was set for Jan. 29.
Marco faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for the Class C felony.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence and would like to talk with an advocate, call 866-834-4357, TRS 800-787-3224. This free, confidential service is available 24/7 and is accessible from anywhere in Maine.