BANGOR, Maine — The attorney representing the man accused of the 1980 slaying of Joyce McLain questioned Monday whether prosecutors had enough probable cause to charge Philip Scott Fournier, 55, of East Millinocket with murder.
Jeffrey Silverstein said outside the Penobscot Judicial Center after Fournier made his first appearance that he would seek a probable cause hearing so that more information about what the attorney general’s office based its decision to arrest Fournier on would become public.
“The main focus that the state is relying upon are statements that he allegedly made back in the 1980s,” Silverstein said at an impromptu press conference outside the courthouse. “There doesn’t seem to be any significant new information presented, certainly, in Mr. Fournier’s statements. I’m bit concerned about why he was charged in March of 2016 when by all appearances the last time he talked to them was about a year ago. The main thrust of what they are relying upon comes from the 1980s.”
Fournier was arrested Friday without incident at his home and charged with intentional or knowing murder and depraved indifference murder in the death of McLain, 16, on Aug. 8, 1980.
Superior Court Justice William Anderson ordered that Fournier be held without bail at the Penobscot County Jail. Fournier may request a bail hearing at a later date, but bail rarely is granted in murder cases. Future court dates were not set Friday.
Fournier, who wore a white dress shirt and blazer in court rather than orange jail garb, was not asked to enter a plea because he has not yet been indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury. The grand jury next convenes on March 23.
Silverstein, who has defended more than a dozen men accused of murder, also said outside the courthouse that it was unusual to read an affidavit that did not include forensic evidence that tied the victim to the defendant. The attorney added that Fournier had been 100 percent disabled since he suffered a head injury and other injuries in a car accident within hours of McLain’s death.
“We will be exploring the impact that has had on his thought process over the years,” Silverstein said.
Lisa Marchese, deputy attorney general, who handled the hearing Monday, said that there was enough probable cause for a judge to sign a warrant for Fournier’s arrest. She also told reporters that no one particular interview or piece of evidence led to Fournier’s arrest Friday.
“It is my belief that it was really the culmination of many years of hard work and investigation, coupled with looking closely at his statements, eliminating some of the alternative suspects that he put forth, and really analyzing and interviewing further people and concluding that his statements were to be believed and that we could prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt [that led to his arrest],” Marchese said.
Although she said that over the past couple of years “further testing” had been done, Marchese refused to disclose what kind of testing and what the results might be.
The affidavit quotes statements Fournier allegedly made to members of the community and investigators over the past 35 ½ years.
McLain last was seen the night of Aug. 8, 1980, while jogging. Her partially clad body was found two days later in a clearing near Schenck High School. Her head and neck had been hit with a blunt object, according to previously published reports.
U.S. District Judge John Woodcock identified Fournier as “a person of interest” in McLain’s homicide when he sentenced him in 2009 to 6½
years in federal prison for possession of child pornography. Fournier’s criminal history also includes convictions in state court for burglary and unauthorized taking in 1979, burglary and theft in 1980 and burglary in 1984. After his conviction for possessing child pornography, he was ordered to be a 10-year registrant of the Maine Sex Offender Registry.
Fournier was released from federal prison on Jan. 6, 2015, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prison Inmate locator.
McLain’s mother, Pamela McLain of East Millinocket, did not attend Monday’s hearing. Other members of the victim’s family and Fournier’s family were in the courtroom for the brief hearing. They declined to speak to reporters.
Part of the detail guarding Fournier in court were two state troopers, Nathan Jamo and Aaron Turcotte, who volunteered for the job because they both grew up in East Millinocket, over which the cloud of McLain’s homicide has hung for nearly 36 years.
Jamo’s father, Tom, worked on aspects of the case in 1980 as a member of the East Millinocket Police Department.
“We felt like we should be there to support the families and all of the detectives who have worked on this case for so many years,” Turcotte said.
Due to start at about 11:30 a.m., Fournier’s hearing began about an hour later, creating a somewhat strained atmosphere in the courtroom audience. In the small and geographically compressed community of East Millinocket, the Fournier and McLain families have known each other for many years.
Yet the tension was briefly alleviated when Greylen Hale, Joyce’s first cousin, shook hands with Wayne Powers, Fournier’s stepfather, as both families waited for the hearing to begin. Hale also shook hands with a man he identified as Lauren Kimball, Fournier’s brother-in-law, as the families came into the courtroom.
“I told Lauren his family are good people and no matter what the outcome is, that won’t change,” Hale said. “Mr. Powers put his hand out and I shook it.”
“These family members are not the bad people,” Hale added.
If convicted of murder, Fournier faces between 25 years and life in prison.
BDN writers Nok-Noi Ricker and Nick Sambides Jr. contributed to this report.