BELFAST, Maine — The state is seeking to have a 17-year-old Troy man tried as an adult in connection with the March 2015 stabbing death of his father.
The teen’s defense attorney, however, is opposing that attempt and said he may challenge to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court the state law that puts the burden on the defense to prove that a juvenile charged with murder should not be tried as an adult.
Colby Hodgdon was 16 when he was arrested a few weeks after his father, 49-year-old Steven Hodgdon of Troy, was found dead March 7, 2015, at his home from a stab wound. The teen was charged with murder and has remained in custody since his arrest.
Defense attorney John Martin of Skowhegan told Judge Patricia Worth during a status hearing on the case Friday in Waldo County District Court that he no longer plans to make the youth’s competency an issue.
While Friday’s hearing was open to the public, Martin requested a subsequent bind-over hearing to determine whether his client should be tried as a juvenile or an adult be closed. The hearing on whether the future proceeding should be public is tentatively scheduled for June 20.
Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea, who is prosecuting the case, said she would oppose that motion.
The defense attorney Friday also asked that Judge Worth find unconstitutional a portion of the state law concerning whether a youth should be tried as an adult.
Specifically, that portion of the law states that the state has the burden of proving a juvenile should be tried as an adult, “except that in a case involving a juvenile who is charged with one or more juvenile crimes that, if the juvenile were an adult, would constitute murder, aggravated attempted murder, attempted murder …”
In such instances, “the juvenile has the burden of proof,” the law states.
Martin said the burden of proof should remain on the state that his client be tried as an adult, just as the state has the burden of proving his client is guilty of the crime.
If his motion on the unconstitutionality of the law fails, Martin said he would like a ruling from the state supreme court prior to the bind-over hearing. The court has scheduled the bind-over hearing for sometime in mid-August.
The importance of the determination is significant. A juvenile found to have committed murder can be incarcerated at a juvenile facility until no later than his 21st birthday. A murder conviction as an adult carries a 25 year minimum sentence with a maximum potential term of life in prison.
Hodgdon is being held at the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland.
The defense has listed 19 potential witnesses for the bind-over hearing but Martin said that may be cut in half by the time the hearing is held in August.
The affidavit filed by the Maine State Police to charge Hodgdon with murder has been sealed since it was filed in court by order of Judge Worth.
Family members of Hodgdon attended Friday’s status hearing and met with him after the proceeding concluded.
Police were called to Steven Hodgdon’s Rutland Road home in Troy at about 2:30 a.m. March 7. The elder Hodgdon died from a stab wound to the chest, according to the Maine medical examiner’s office, and the death was ruled a homicide.
Police have not said who called them that morning or what the nature of the call was. The man lived at the home with his teenage son.