AUBURN — On the same day a Lewiston man is scheduled to start his murder trial next week, prosecutors in that case expect to seek a murder indictment against his co-defendant, who has been charged only with hindering apprehension or prosecution in the slaying.

Defense attorney James Howaniec said Wednesday that prosecutors at the Office of the Maine Attorney General told him earlier in the week they planned to seek a murder indictment against his client, William True, 20, of Lewiston, when an Androscoggin County grand jury meets next week. The grand jury is expected to rise Wednesday, July 9, the same day Michael McNaughton’s murder trial is scheduled to get underway in the slaying of Romeo Parent, 20, of Lewiston in 2013.

Deputy Attorney General William Stokes said Thursday neither he nor state prosecutors could comment on whether they might pursue a murder indictment next week against True.

True was charged last year with the Class B felony of hindering apprehension in Parent’s slaying and was scheduled to be a co-defendant at McNaughton’s trial.

Howaniec said Wednesday his client won’t stand trial Wednesday if the state is successful with its plans to seek a murder indictment against True. “That changes everything,” he said.

True, who has been in jail for the past 15 months, “adamantly denies” involvement in the killing, Howaniec said.

Nathan Morton, 25, of Greene agreed last week to plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit intentional murder and hindering apprehension in exchange for a sentence of 20 years in prison, with half of that time suspended. Since that plea, Morton has provided investigators with additional information implicating True in Parent’s murder, Howaniec said.

If a grand jury were to return a murder indictment against True when it rises next week, Howaniec said, “We think this very late indictment is unfortunate and unfair and based on some very tenuous evidence.”

He said he expected the state would have “some substantial problems” in proving its case against him.

Meanwhile, the Androscoggin County Superior Court judge who is expected to preside over the McNaughton trial next week largely denied McNaughton’s motion recently to suppress statements he made to police about Parent’s slaying. His attorneys have since filed a motion seeking reconsideration of that order. The judge is on vacation until Monday, when she is expected to meet with attorneys in the case.

In a police affidavit, Maine State Police Detective Randall Keaton wrote that Auburn police were notified on April 10, 2013, by Eric Leighton that his friend, True, “may have killed their mutual friend,” Parent. Two local police officers went to Leighton’s apartment and interviewed him. Leighton told them that True had just climbed up the back fire escape to Leighton’s apartment asking if he had a large duffel bag. Leighton gave True two large trash bags, and asked why True needed the bags.

True “broke down and became very emotional, claiming that he had killed” Parent, Leighton said. “True went on to tell Leighton that if he called the police, True would kill him, too.”

Leighton also told police that True “appeared to be abnormally clean, describing his prior appearance to always be dirty and unclean,” Keaton wrote in his affidavit.

Leighton told police that, in addition to wearing clean clothes, “True had shaved his head.”

During a later interview with a local police detective, Leighton said True and Parent had been charged in a burglary. Parent had apparently confessed to police during an interview, implicating True. Parent had received a summons and True had been arrested, Leighton said. Leighton told police that True was “looking to hurt Parent and ‘kick his ass’ for implicating him.”

True’s girlfriend, Felicia Cadman, told police that True had told her that McNaughton, a good friend of True, had “taken care of Romeo.”

Morton told police in a later interview that McNaughton and True had asked him to return to the woods in Greene where Morton said he had driven McNaughton and Parent to “take care of” Parent’s body.

A week later, police interviewed a woman, Crystal Dodson, a neighbor to Charles Epps, who lived in a condemned building on Blake Street. Witnesses said Epps had supplied several men with sheets with which to wrap Parent’s body before dumping it in a stream in Monmouth.

Dodson said she could hear True and McNaughton yelling that Parent “was a snitch and needed to be beat down.” She said she could recognize their voices.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link