A man serving a life sentence for one of Maine’s most infamous murder cases will get a new hearing and possibly a new trial thanks to new DNA evidence, according to ABC affiliate WVII.
Dennis Dechaine, 66, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1988 murder of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry.
Cherry was kidnapped from a home in Bowdoin while she was babysitting.
Her body was found several miles away in the woods two days later close to where Dechaine’s truck had been parked when he was picked up by police the night she disappeared.
Dechaine was convicted and has lost multiple appeals, but he has always maintained his innocence. He has tried for years to have his conviction overturned or get a new trial.
A judge agreed to allow for new DNA testing in the case with the results finding no conclusive links between Dechaine and several key samples, but it couldn’t be excluded from several other items.
A car repair receipt and notebook bearing Dechaine’s name were found outside the Bowdoin home where Sarah was babysitting before her abduction. Yellow rope used to bind her hands matched rope in Dechaine’s truck. And his truck was parked near the location where her body was found.
Dechaine contends that someone framed him by planting evidence while he was in the woods doing drugs.
Last year, the Maine Sunday Telegram reported that the new tests excluded Dechaine’s DNA from the victim’s bra, a bandana used to gag her and a stick used to violate her, but they were inconclusive on her blood-stained T-shirt, a scarf used to strangle her and another stick.
Dechaine has been granted a hearing in April where he can use that DNA evidence to argue for a new trial.