A settlement conference will be held later this month in the case of a South Thomaston woman charged with murder in connection with the beating death of an elderly Owls Head woman.
Sarah Richards, 37, pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and theft at her arraignment in May. Police say Richards bludgeoned 83-year-old Helen Carver to death at her Owls Head home in February.
The closed-door conference, being held on Aug. 30 in Portland, is standard in murder cases, according to Richards’ attorney Jeremy Pratt. The conferences are held to determine whether an agreement can be reached before the case goes to trial.
Pratt did not say whether he expected an agreement would be reached, only that these conferences can go either way.
“I’ve had settlement conferences where there have been trials and settlement conferences where there’s been an agreement,” Pratt said.
The conference is being held before a judge in Cumberland County Court rather than Knox County Court because the judge assigned to the conference is based in Portland, Pratt said.
Assistant Attorney Generals Leane Zainea and Bud Ellis are prosecuting the case.
Richards allegedly killed Carver on Feb. 21 at her Owls Head home, where Richards was providing snow removal. One of Carver’s sons found his mother unresponsive in her home later that day after Carver did not answer his phone calls.
The state medical examiner’s office determined that Carver died from blunt force trauma with evidence of strangulation.
In the weeks before her death, Carver reportedly suspected that Richards stole her debit card. Carver reported the alleged theft to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 14. Detectives from the sheriff’s office had previously arranged to interview Richards on Feb. 22, the day after Carver died.
On either the day before or the day of Carver’s death, Richards allegedly asked her ex-husband if he would be willing to kill someone, according to a police affidavit filed in support of a search warrant last month. Her ex-husband initially thought that Richards’ question was a joke, but after seeing what she was accused of doing, he had “no doubt” Richards was asking him if he was “willing to take part in killing Helen Carver,” the affidavit states.
After changing her story multiple times, Richards allegedly told police that she killed Carver with a “tool” after Carver confronted her about the stolen debit card. Richards said that Carver, who used a wheelchair, “came at her” so she lunged at Carver, tackled her into an entertainment center and then struck Carver in the head “with a tool [she] had brought into the home,” the affidavit states.
Richards has been held without bail at the Knox County Jail in Rockland since her arrest in February.