Jury selection in the trial of a New York man is set to begin Monday, the second anniversary of the drug-related shooting in a Bangor apartment that left one man dead and another wounded.
Robert “Rocco” Hansley, 29, of Brooklyn, New York, is charged with murder and elevated aggravated assault in a Center Street apartment on Nov. 27, 2015.
Hansley’s co-defendant, Thomas “Ferg” Ferguson, 39, of Brooklyn, New York, was found guilty of both charges in June following a jury-waived trial. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 28.
In Ferguson’s case, Superior Court Justice William Anderson concluded that Ferguson was an accomplice but did not pull the trigger. The evidence indicated Hansley fired the shots that killed Robert “Ricco” Mark Kennedy 38, of Bangor and wounded Barry Jenkins, 43, also of Brooklyn, the judge concluded.
The murder weapon was given to Ferguson to settle a drug debt, Anderson found.
Under Maine law, an accomplice is as criminally responsible for a crime as is the principal actor, unless he or she was forced to participate in the crime. The consideration of the role an accomplice played in a crime is part of the sentencing process.
Hansley did not testify against Ferguson, and Ferguson is not expected to testify against Hansley.
The two men are being tried separately after Anderson decided that no Maine judge had ever conducted a jury-waived trial and a bench trial at the same time.
The evidence to be present at Hansley trial is expected to be the same as that presented at Ferguson’s trial, which took eight days to complete.
Jenkins, who survived his wounds, testified in May that he and Kennedy, the man who died, were visiting female friends after some Black Friday shopping in the Bangor Mall area. Ferguson and Hansley burst in and began shooting about 3:30 a.m. as they were getting ready to eat Thanksgiving leftovers, Jenkins testified.
“They shot at Ricco and then at me,” he testified. “I felt like I was going to die. It happened so fast.”
Both men face 25 years to life in prison on the murder charges and up to 30 years in prison on the elevated aggravated assault charges.
Jury selection is expected to take two or three days, according to Hansley’s defense attorney Hunter Tzovarras.
Tzovarras replaced Marvin Glazier on the case after he became ill. Glazier died Thursday at age 72. His funeral service will be held noon Monday.
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