AUBURN — William True and his former girlfriend Felicia Cadman pleaded not guilty Friday in Androscoggin County Superior Court to charges in the 2013 stabbing and strangulation death of Romeo Parent.

True, 20, of Lewiston was indicted Wednesday on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, which were in addition to a 2013 charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution. If convicted on all counts, he faces more than 60 years in prison.

Justice MaryGay Kennedy ordered him to continue to be held without bail pending trial.

Cadman, 21, of Mechanic Falls, was also indicted Wednesday on a charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. She was released from Androscoggin County Jail on $500 cash bail Friday.

True and Cadman bring the number of defendants in the case to five.

Michael McNaughton, 26, of Lewiston is standing trial in Androscoggin County Superior Court on a charge of murdering Parent, 20, of Lewiston in April 2013 and dumping his body in Jug Stream in Monmouth.

Last November, Sebastian Moody of Lewiston pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of falsifying evidence as part of plea deal to reduce a more serious charge of hindering prosecution.

Two weeks ago, Nathan Morton, 25, of Greene agreed 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.

He admitted driving Parent and McNaughton to a remote wooded area in Greene where Parent was killed, and then returning to the scene the next day with McNaughton to help strip Parent’s body and move it to Monmouth, where it was found by police.

Since Morton’s plea deal, he has provided investigators with additional information implicating True in Parent’s death.

True had been the subject of police interest since the murder, based on an interview with Eric Leighton of Auburn.

According to an affidavit by Maine State Police Detective Randall Keaton, the day after Parent’s death, Leighton told Auburn police that True “may have killed their mutual friend,” Parent. Leighton also said that True threatened to “kill him, too” if he told police.

In May 2013, True was charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution and has been held at Androscoggin County Jail without bail.

Cadman was arrested Thursday and was booked at the Androscoggin County Jail on $10,000 cash bail. She has no criminal convictions.

Cadman was interviewed by police a month after Parent’s death, and according to an affidavit later issued for McNaughton’s arrest, she told police McNaughton’s slaying of Parent was an act of community service by “taking care of a rat.”

Appearing at Friday’s arraignment handcuffed and in blue prison clothing, Cadman asked the court to consider reducing her bail because she has a 2-year-old son with special needs. The child had been left with his father while Cadman was in jail, but she said he couldn’t continue caring for the child and she “really needed to get out of jail today.”

Assistant Attorney General Deborah Cashman, who is prosecuting the McNaughton case, asked the court to consider maintaining some cash bail because Cadman’s “conduct resulted in some of the reason we had to charge Mr. True so late” in this case, a fact that True’s attorney, James Howaniec, has criticized.

Cadman’s bail was reduced to $500 cash, which can not be paid by a third party, and she was given special instructions not to have contact with more than a dozen people associated with the case, including Crystal Dodson and Charles Epps.

Dodson was a neighbor to 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 Jug Stream.

Dodson said she could hear True and McNaughton, whose voices she recognized, in Epps’ apartment yelling that Parent “was a snitch and needed to be beat down.”

jmeyer@sunjournal.com

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