BANGOR, Maine — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday unanimously rejected a new trial for the second of two men convicted in a drug deal gone bad nearly five years ago that left three people dead and their bodies burned beyond recognition.
Justices heard the appeal of Nicholas Sexton, 36, of Warwick, Rhode Island, in October at Marshwood High School in South Berwick during the court’s annual schools tour. He was found guilty by a Penobscot County jury in May 2014 of murder in the death of Nicolle Lugdon, 24, of Eddington and of arson in August 2012 in Bangor. After deliberating for nearly 45 hours over five days, jurors could not reach a verdict on the murder counts in connection with the deaths of Daniel Borders, 26, of Hermon and Lucas Tuscano, 28, of Bradford.
Sexton is serving a 90-year sentence in New Hampshire.
The jury found Randall Daluz, 39, of Brockton, Massachusetts, guilty on three counts of murder and one count of arson. He is serving a life sentence in Massachusetts.
Information on why the men were moved out-of-state was not available Friday from the Department of Corrections. According to policy, prisoners may ask to be moved to be closer to family or they can be relocated if their incarceration in Maine is disruptive or the inmate needs medical attention not available in state.
Sexton’s attorney for the appeal, Jeremy Pratt of Camden, argued that the judge should have instructed the jury about what it had to find to determine that Sexton killed Lugdon under duress; a witness should have been shown a photo array instead of a single photo when asked to identify the murder weapons; cell phone information about Sexton’s location two days after the murders was obtained illegally; and that Sexton and Daluz should have been tried separately.
The justices rejected all of Pratt’s arguments on Sexton’s behalf, including that the men should not have been tried together.
“Sexton essentially argues that joinder [for trial] was prejudicial per se because of his and Daluz’s incompatible and irreconcilable defenses — a contention that, without more [evidence], is not persuasive,” Maine Supreme Judicial Court Justice Thomas Humphrey wrote in the 20-page decision.
“The trial court carefully instructed the jury to independently weigh the evidence against each defendant, and did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion for relief from [a joint trial].”
In July, the state’s high court unanimously upheld Daluz’s convictions. His attorney unsuccessfully argued that repeated references to race made about Daluz, an African-American, by his co-defendant’s attorney at the men’s joint murder trial were so egregious that he should have been granted a new trial.
The justices also ruled in Daluz’s appeal that the decision to hold one trial rather than two was the proper one.