ROCKLAND, Maine — The trial of a Maine State Prison inmate accused of killing another prisoner by stabbing him 87 times and then planning to kill a guard could be held in September.
The scheduling of the trial of Richard Stahursky, 36, was discussed Monday in Knox County Superior Court.
Defense attorney Philip Cohen said that a hearing on a motion to suppress statements made by Stahursky is to be held in May, and the trial is tentatively set to start in September.
Stahursky pleaded not criminally responsible by reason of insanity in January. At that time, Assistant Attorney General John Alsop said the state will contest the claim of insanity.
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 on Feb. 28, 2014, Stahursky beat and stabbed 37-year-old Micah Boland 87 times in Boland’s cell at the Warren prison. 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 was in possession of 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.
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 before 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.