SKOWHEGAN, Maine — A Superior Court judge Friday ordered a Fairfield man accused of shooting his wife twice in the head be held without bail during a brief hearing at the Somerset County Courthouse.
Luc Tieman, 32, is charged with intentional or knowing murder in the death of Valerie Tieman, 34, of Fairfield.
Luc Tieman, who was shackled and handcuffed in the courtroom, was not asked to enter a plea to the murder charge because he has not yet been indicted by the grand jury. The Somerset County grand jury next convenes on Oct. 27.
He pleaded not guilty to the unrelated charge of driving after suspension out of Waterville District Court. Information about why Luc Tieman’s driver’s license is suspended was not available Friday.
He is next due in court on the murder charge on Nov. 18.
Members of the victim’s family did not attend Thursday’s hearing, but Luc Tieman’s mother sat behind her son in the courtroom with three supporters.
Superior Court Justice Robert Mullen held off ruling on the prosecution’s motion asking that Luc Tieman undergo a mental health evaluation until defense attorney Stephen Smith of Augusta and Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainia agree on the parameters of the exam.
Zainia said after Luc Tieman’s brief first appearance that such an exam “is not unusual in cases where murder is alleged. This appears to be an appropriate case for such an exam to be requested.”
Luc Tieman reportedly suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder because of his combat service overseas in the military.
Smith declined to confirm after the hearing whether his client suffers from PTSD but said he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army.
“Luc Tieman has served his country in many war zones,” Smith said. “He’s a veteran. He’s a combat veteran. There should not be a rush to judgement.”
The U.S. Army confirmed Friday that Luc Tieman was in the service from April 2004 to January 2013. The publicly releasable history of his service record indicates that Luc Tieman served in Iraq from October 2005 to September 2006 and in Afghanistan from December 2008 to November 2009 and October 2011 to May 2012.
A power generations equipment repairer and specialist E-4, Luc Tieman received an Iraq Campaign Medal with two campaign stars, an Afghanistan Campaign Medal with two campaign stars, a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, an Air Assault Badge and several achievement, good conduct and service awards.
According to the six-page affidavit, which was released Thursday and first made public by Portland television station WGME, CBS 13, after investigators found the body, Luc Tieman told state police his wife died from a heroin overdose.
Valerie Tieman’s body was found Tuesday in a wooded area in Fairfield behind the house at 628 Norridgewock Road that she shared with her husband and his parents, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said in a news release issued Wednesday.
According to information initially provided to police by Luc Tieman, Valerie Tieman last was seen Aug. 30 at Wal-Mart in Skowhegan and that his wife was missing from the truck when he returned a short time later. Police reported, however, that Luc Tieman’s truck was not seen on the store’s surveillance video in the location where he said he had parked or during the time he said he was in the parking lot on any days between Aug. 21 and Aug. 31.
Valerie Tieman’s last phone call to her husband was on Aug. 24, according to the affidavit. It lasted 13 minutes and 33 seconds.
His story has changed at least twice since then, the affidavit indicated. The document did not say whether Luc Tieman confessed to killing his wife or whether he asked to speak to a lawyer.
Zainea declined Friday to answer questions about what was and was not included in the affidavit.
A Norridgewock woman interviewed by police said she had been romantically involved with Luc Tieman for about a month, the affidavit said. She told investigators that he had stayed at her home every night since the beginning of September.
Valerie Tieman was reported missing to Fairfield police on Sept. 9 by her parents, who live in North Carolina, McCausland said. They were concerned because of the length of time that had passed since they last heard from her.
According to the affidavit, their last contact with their daughter was on Aug. 18 through a Facebook message.
State police joined the investigation into Valerie Tieman’s disappearance on Sept. 13.
Luc Tieman was taken into custody at about 10 a.m. Wednesday by Maine State Police detectives, who found him on Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville, near a hotel where he had spent the night, McCausland said.
If convicted, he faces between 25 years and life in prison.
According to a State Bureau of Identification criminal history record, Luc Tieman previously was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief and was sentenced in March 2015 to 48 hours in jail and ordered to pay $100 in restitution.
The agency did not provide details, but the Morning Sentinel reported Friday that the case involved an incident on Sept. 5, 2014, about three months after Luc and Valerie Tieman were married. The Sentinel reported that Luc Tieman was arrested for causing more than $2,000 worth of damage to a Winslow gun shop’s trailer with a hatchet just before midnight.
An affidavit obtained Friday by the Morning Sentinel from the Kennebec County Superior Court states that Winslow police officers who found and interviewed Luc Tieman nearby smelled “intoxicating beverages emitting from his breath” and that he told them “he had been having an argument with his wife and that he was out because he was upset.”
After police matched a hatchet found at the scene with a hatchet sheath found in Luc Tieman’s SUV, he confessed and later pleaded guilty to the criminal mischief charge.
BDN writers Dawn Gagnon and Nick Sambides Jr. contributed to this report.