LEWISTON — A city man whose trial for elevated aggravated assault stemming from a fight at a drinking party which ended last month with a hung jury was released Monday from jail after serving time for public drinking.
Raikuez Melchoirre, 36, of 209 Lincoln St. was charged Friday with drinking in public and refusing to submit to arrest after local police found him on Knox Street loitering and surrounded by empty beer cans. A sign posted nearby read: “No drinking and No Loitering.”
He denied the empties were his, but was later spotted by police standing in front of a Knox Street building drinking a can of Natty Daddy beer. As police approached him, he fled to the back of the building and tossed the beer can over a fence into a parking lot, according to a police detective’s affidavit.
He pleaded guilty Monday in 8th District Court to a misdemeanor charge of drinking in public and was sentenced to two days in jail. He was released Monday after spending the weekend at Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.
The misdemeanor charge of refusing to submit to arrest or detention was dismissed.
He also was fined $20.
Melchoirre was freed last month after a jury deadlocked on a verdict in Androscoggin County Superior Court. He was tried on an indictment for elevated aggravated assault stemming from a drunken fight with Richard “Buddy” Edwards Jr. that left Edwards with multiple stab wounds to his face, shoulders, knee, chest and abdomen.
A day after his mistrial, Melchoirre entered an Alford plea, in which he maintained his innocence, but agreed that a jury could find him guilty if he were to go to trial again. He was freed from jail after he was sentenced to time served.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
