BANGOR, Maine — A 22-year-old Orono man was sentenced Thursday at the Penobscot Judicial Center to 20 years in prison with all but 10 years suspended in connection with the stabbing and blinding of his mother’s boyfriend in 2013.
Dorian Christian Sky Guerin, also known as Dorian Archer, pleaded no contest on June 5 to one count of elevated aggravated assault.
No contest pleas result in convictions.
In exchange for Guerin’s plea, Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy agreed to drop an attempted murder charge and a second elevated aggravated assault charge at sentencing.
The sentencing began Tuesday but was continued to allow Superior Court Justice Ann Murray time to review psychologists’ reports, victim impact statements and a sentencing memorandum.
The judge said Thursday that she considered the victim’s injuries “devastating” but felt Guerin’s background, which included physical and sexual abuse as a child, to be a mitigating factor.
Murray also sentenced Guerin to four years of probation. Conditions include substance abuse and mental health treatment. Guerin has a history of both.
Almy on Tuesday recommended that Murray impose a sentence of 25 years in prison with all but 15 years suspended, followed by four years of probation.
Defense attorney Martha Harris of Bangor recommended that Guerin be sentenced to 15 years in prison with all but eight years suspended, followed by four years of probation.
In his plea filed earlier this month, Guerin admitted that on the afternoon of Dec. 8, 2014, he and his mother’s boyfriend got into a fight at 87 Park St. in Orono. During that fight, Guerin and the victim fell down a flight of stairs, and Guerin proceeded to stab the victim with a knife from the kitchen.
Guerin told police after his arrest that he attacked the victim because he thought the victim was going to attack him.
Almy said Thursday that the victim suffered 21 stab wounds, primarily to the head, neck and abdomen.
Doctors had to remove part of the victim’s skull to repair damage the knife caused to his brain. The attack left the victim permanently blind and with serious neurological damage.
The victim now lives in a nursing home in Washington state, where he has relative, according to Almy.
Guerin faced up to 30 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.