ROCKLAND, Maine — The lawyer for the man accused of the July 2024 shotgun slaying of Kyle MacDougall at a Cushing residence has asked the court to exclude any statements made by his client during a standoff and from the immediate subsequent interrogation.
Jason Goucher Hewett, 40, of Augusta, is charged with class A manslaughter in connection to the July 7, 2024 death of the 45-year-old MacDougall at the then residence of Mark D. Gagne at 834 River Road in Cushing. The manslaughter complaint contends that Hewett recklessly or with criminal negligence caused the death of MacDougall.
Hewett was arrested July 16, 2024, after Maine State Police pursued him from Lincoln County to Augusta where Hewett drove into a ditch and onto the lawn of Nadeau Chiropractic and Wellness Center.
Hewett then barricaded himself inside his vehicle. The Maine State Police Tactical Team and Crisis Negotiation Team responded. After four hours of negotiations, Hewett surrendered and was arrested without incident. Hewett was taken to the Kennebec County Correctional Facility in Augusta where he was questioned by state homicide detectives.
He is being held in lieu of bail which is $200,000 cash.
Defense attorney Andrew Wright filed a motion in the state court in Knox County, asking that statements made by Hewett to police during the standoff or interrogation not be allowed for the upcoming trial because he was never read his Miranda rights against self incrimination. Wright said his client was surrounded by police who observed the suspect consuming alcohol and smoking marijuana in the vehicle. When he surrendered, Hewett was taken to the Augusta Police Station and questioned even after he said he did not want to answer questions, Wright argued in his motion.
At neither point was he read his rights based on the United States and Maine constitutions, Wright stated. He said there were some comments that could be construed as incriminating made by his client that should not be allowed in at a trial. The motion does not detail what those comments were.
A hearing on that motion to suppress is scheduled for Nov. 17.
The trial is scheduled to begin March 2, 2026, in Knox County with jury selection. The trial could last two weeks. Justice Patrick Larson is presiding over the hearings and trial.
Hewett has a lengthy criminal record including in Knox County. Offenses included operating a motor vehicle as a habitual offender, trafficking in prison contraband, and assault. In 2011, he was arrested and charged with assaulting a woman and setting fire to her home in Kennebec County.
The affidavit filed in court by state police said the investigation into MacDougall’s death began on July 12, 2024 when a witness called in with information that MacDougall had been killed on July 7. The witness said, however, he wanted “consideration” for his own prior crimes. The witness said that he was at a residence when another individual admitted to killing MacDougall by shooting his face off with a shotgun in the kitchen of Gagne’s home. The witness said the individual then claimed that he took the body out in back of the home and rolled up in a tarp.
That individual has not been charged in connection to the death and was not mentioned by anyone else in the affidavit.
The information provided by the initial witness led to surveillance of the Cushing residence where the killing is believed to have occurred.
Police interviewed another witness who said she believed Hewett had committed the shooting. This witness said she had heard that they were trying to burn the body and other evidence. Police said that when they heard about the burning, they contacted officers watching the home. Those officers saw Gagne burning something in a large burn barrel and converged on the scene.
In the barrel, they found skeletal remains and insulation. Inside the home, they found the wall between the kitchen and living room had been removed.
Gagne, 41, was taken to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office in Rockland but he declined to make any statements after consulting with an attorney. State police then charged Gagne with hindering apprehension and abuse of a corpse.
A further review of the house found brown stains and parts of a shotgun, according to the police report.
The police affidavit said investigators spoke to MacDougall’s former girlfriend who dropped MacDougall off at Gagne’s home on July 7. She waited for him outside in her vehicle. About 30 minutes later, Hewett came to the car and said MacDougall had taken a bag and ran into the woods. The woman then drove around trying to locate MacDougall but when she was unable to find him, she returned to the house.
The woman said there were four people at the house — Hewett, Gagne, John G. Flower, 40, of Rockland, and a woman whom she did not know at the time, according to the affidavit.
Police interviewed Flower who said MacDougall had come into the house and picked up a shotgun and shot himself in the neck.
Police then interviewed the woman that MacDougall’s former woman friend had seen in the home. That woman said she saw Hewett with the shotgun and she went into the bathroom and Gagne went with her to make sure she would not use her phone. She was in the bathroom when the shooting occurred. She said Hewett later came in the bathroom too and said he had shot MacDougall but that it was a mistake and he did not mean to do it.
The woman has not been charged.
Another witness said that Hewett believed that MacDougall had loosened lug nuts on his truck which caused it to crash and be destroyed. Hewett had said prior to July 7 to the witness that something was going to be done with MacDougall.
Police interviewed Flower a second time and he said that he, Hewett, Gagne, and a woman were at Gagne’s home on July 7 when MacDougall arrived to buy some drugs. Flower said Hewett grabbed the shotgun and said “check yourself fool” to MacDougall before shooting him in the neck. Hewett then put towels on MacDougall’s neck to try to stop the bleeding.
Flower was arrested July 25, 2024, by Maine State Police on a charge of Class B felony hindering apprehension or prosecution.
Gagne pleaded guilty in September 2024 to felony hindering apprehension and a misdemeanor count of abuse of a corpse after being caught burning a body. In exchange, he was released on personal recognizance bail Sept. 17, 2024, and was to serve no more jail time for those two charges. Under terms of the sentence agreement, Gagne must testify at Hewett’s trial.
Gagne will not be sentenced for the Cushing charges until after Hewett’s case is completed.
Gagne was also arrested and sentenced Dec. 2, 2024, to 72 hours in jail for criminal trespass at the residence where the killing occurred. The property owner had found Gagne living in the house well after he had moved out.
Gagne was also charged in March 2025 by Rockland Police with trafficking in fentanyl, felony possession of cocaine and violating a condition of release. An affidavit filed by Rockland Police states that the charges are the result of an Oct. 10, 2024, search of a home on Luce Avenue in Rockland.
Since that bust, Gagne was arrested on Feb. 20 for aggravated trafficking in fentanyl, crack cocaine and prescription pills after police stopped a vehicle and found him with drugs. He has been held in jail since that arrest.
Flower pleaded guilty Sept. 26, 2024, to a single misdemeanor count of falsifying physical evidence in connection to the Cushing death. In exchange for the plea, a more serious charge of Class B felony hindering apprehension or prosecution is being dismissed.
Additional terms of the plea agreement have been sealed by the judge.
Flower was sentenced in March 2025 to 90 days in jail for a knife attack during a drug deal gone bad (the charges were aggravated assault, criminal mischief, and violating a condition of release). He was given credit for time served and was released in mid-April.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.