PORTLAND, Maine —The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday unanimously upheld the 38-year sentence of a Portland man convicted in the shooting death of his roommate more than five years ago.
Daudoit Butsitsi, 29, of Portland was found guilty of murder by a jury in July 2011 after a trial in Cumberland County Superior Court. He is incarcerated at the Maine State Prison.
Jurors found that he shot and killed Serge Mulongo , 24, in a revenge slaying on the night of Feb. 10, 2010. The roommates had fought earlier the day, according to a previously published report.
In 2013, the Maine supreme court upheld Butsitsi’s conviction but did not address the length of his sentence. Justices heard oral arguments on the most recent appeal on May 14 at the Cumberland County Courthouse.
Both men came to Portland from what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“Butsitsi testified at trial that his family was forced to leave the Congo because they were unsafe as a result of their mixed tribal or ethnic heritage,” Justice Donald Alexander wrote in a footnote in the 15-page decision. “One of the letters submitted to the court for consideration at sentencing detailed the ‘ethnic’ or ‘tribal’ conflict between two regions in the Congo, and the letter claimed that Butsitsi is from one region and that the victim was from the other.”
David Paris of Bath, Butsitsi’s attorney for the sentencing appeal, argued that the statements made by the judge and on behalf of the victim about the defendant’s national origin violated his right to due process. The lawyer said the comments created “a constitutionally impermissible appearance of bias.”
The Maine supreme court disagreed.
“Viewing the court’s statements in the context of the criminal trial and sentencing hearing, the court appears to have carefully and thoughtfully weighed all of the considerations presented to it by Butsitsi, the state, and the victim’s family and community,” Alexander said. “Although the court did reference some of these considerations in delivering its sentence, the court’s statements in no way suggest that the sentence was based upon Butsitsi’s race or national origin, or that the sentencing judge was otherwise biased against Butsitsi.
“At the sentencing hearing, Butsitsi’s counsel asserted that the ‘cultural underpinnings’ of the case were relevant to the proceeding and repeatedly argued that the court should consider Butsitsi’s exposure to violence in the Congo as a mitigating factor,” Alexander concluded. “The court did just that and sentenced Butsitsi to a final term of imprisonment, for what was a planned, ambush murder.”