OAKFIELD, Maine — A Houlton man accused of gunning down an Oakfield couple in the fall of 2013 is scheduled to be back in court in June, as attorneys are seeking to suppress some of the statements he first made to police when charged.
A suppression hearing in the case of Matthew Davis is scheduled for June 25 in Aroostook County Superior Court in Houlton, Assistant Attorney General Leanne Zainea said Tuesday.
The twice rescheduled hearing originally was set to take place March 19 but was continued until April 23, then was delayed again until the June date.
Davis is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Michael Kitchen, 51, and Heidi Pratt, 49, both of Oakfield. He is accused of fatally shooting the couple in their Oakfield-Smyrna Road home before setting it on fire on Sept. 23, 2013.
A motive for the crime has not been made public.
Zainea said Tuesday afternoon that the dates for the hearings were not set in stone by the judge because the attorneys needed to do a lot of work on the case. She added no documents related to the suppression hearing have been filed by the prosecution in court.
Davis’ attorneys, James Dunleavy and Sarah Leclaire of Presque Isle, indicated in their motion to suppress that police did not follow due process in acquiring the statements from their client on Sept. 23, 2013, when he was arrested or the next day when he was incarcerated at the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton.
Their motion, however, states that when Davis was first stopped while driving a black passenger car on the Beaver Dam Road in Island Falls on Sept. 23, the trooper was “unaware of the ownership or status of the car.”
Within moments of stopping the vehicle, however, Trooper Jill Monahan recognized the driver as the man being sought in connection with the double murder and she handcuffed him and placed him in the front passenger seat of the cruiser “facing, at close range, a video and audio recorder,” according to the motion.
“There is no indication that Mr. Davis was provided with Miranda warnings prior to or during” the subsequent interrogation in the cruiser by Monahan, which lasted in excess of one hour, the documents states.
The defense attorneys further argue Davis was not read his rights until later that afternoon at the Houlton barracks, when he said he did not want to talk to the detectives. For more than half an hour afterward and again the next day at the jail, however, the detectives continued to engage Davis in conversation, the motion states.
“Police must ‘scrupulously honor’ a suspect’s right to remain silent by immediately ceasing questioning when the suspect invokes this right,” the motion argues.
Because the state “did not comport with due process,” all statements obtained illegally should be suppressed as well as any evidence obtained through use of those statements, Dunleavy and LeClaire state.
The document is not specific about which statements it seeks to suppress, but it indicates Davis “made numerous statements of an arguably inculpable nature” while talking to the trooper and the detectives.
Shortly after the bodies were recovered, an autopsy conducted at the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta determined Kitchen died from multiple gunshot wounds and Pratt from a gunshot wound to the neck. Police said the wounds were inflicted by a semi-automatic rifle purchased by Davis. Davis never reported the gun stolen, investigators said, and it was found lying across Kitchen’s body in the burned remnants of the home.
According to an affidavit written by Maine State Police Detective Elmer Farren, neighbors of the victims heard gunshots at about 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 23, 2013, and saw a truck leaving the scene with one male driver. Firefighters called to the home discovered a white pickup truck belonging to Katahdin Forest Products aflame against the residence.
One hour later, the Island Falls Fire Department was called to extinguish a fire on Richardson Road in Island Falls, where another pickup truck was found burning. Farren said in the affidavit that police determined the truck belonged to the mechanic’s garage that Kitchen owned with his family. Another firearm found inside the vehicle belonged to Davis.
Police believe the spree of mayhem started earlier that morning at Katahdin Forest Products in Oakfield, where a flatbed wrecker truck registered to Davis had been backed into the building, and the truck and office had caught fire. Police said video surveillance from that site shows the same white company truck that was found burning at the Kitchen home leaving the scene.
Following a manhunt, police found Davis at about 10:45 a.m. in a stolen vehicle in Island Falls and arrested him, according to the affidavit.
Davis did not enter a plea when he made his initial court appearance on Sept. 25, 2013.
Two months after his arrest, he was indicted on two counts of murder, four counts of arson, three counts each of theft and aggravated criminal mischief.
He has been held without bail since his arrest.
One year after the murders, more than 100 people gathered at Merrill Millstream Park in Oakfield for the inaugural Mike and Heidi Memorial Walk and Ride and to dedicate a bench in the park in the couple’s honor.