AUBURN — The civil trial scheduled for Monday against a Wales man convicted of killing a hunter near his home was put on hold when the defendant filed for bankruptcy.
Christopher Austin, 45, was expected to stand trial in Androscoggin County Superior Court this week in a wrongful death complaint filed by the wife of Gerard Parent, 49, also of Wales. Several witnesses and attorneys appeared in court Monday despite the last-minute postponement, court officials said.
Austin was sentenced last year to two and a half years in prison for manslaughter in the 2012 fatal hunting incident.
He also was sentenced to seven years in prison on unrelated sexual assault charges.
On Friday, Austin filed for Chapter 7 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland. At the same time, his Lewiston trial attorney, Scott Lynch, filed with the Auburn court a notice that Austin had taken that action. Under the bankruptcy code, Lynch reminded the court, any other court proceeding, including a civil trial, is postponed.
A jury was picked on Aug. 5.
Austin told authorities he believed he was shooting at a deer when he opened fire with a hunting rifle on Nov. 20, 2012.
Parent, who investigators say was apparently after the same deer, died from a single gunshot to the chest.
The sexual assault charges were lodged while Austin was awaiting trial on the manslaughter charge. He pleaded guilty to charges in both cases and was sentenced at a hearing in May 2015.
According to bankruptcy court papers, Austin estimated the total of his property assets at $1,154; the total of his liabilities, $9,261.13. He estimated his clothing to be worth roughly $50. He has $26 in a credit union account and $78 in his canteen account at the Maine State Prison in Warren, where he is serving his sentence.
Among his creditors, he listed Parent and his estate, which filed the lawsuit, his sexual assault victim, a student loan company, his attorney, a timeshare in Ellsworth and the Maine Crime Victims’ Compensation Program.
Austin works as a member of the outside grounds crew at the prison and lists a monthly income of $50.
Although he had received Veterans Affairs disability benefits totaling $466 per month, those payments were suspended when he went to prison, according to court papers. He had worked as a roofer at Austin Endeavors in Wales for 16 years, ending in 2012.
Unlike a Chapter 13 filing, where a debtor intends to restructure his debt and repay at least part of it, Chapter 7 bankruptcy is aimed at discharging most debts.
A court clerk said the civil trial could go forward only after the bankruptcy proceeding was resolved.
Gerard Parent’s widow, Becky Ann Brown, filed the civil complaint against Austin in Androscoggin County Superior Court.
She said she couldn’t hold a job because of the turmoil caused by the loss of her husband, whom she described as hardworking, responsible, “organized to a fault” and kind.
She wrote in a sworn affidavit that she has been on medication and under the care of a doctor due to the emotional toll her husband’s death has had on her health.
Brown secured a court-ordered attachment of $30,000 against Austin, who denied having homeowners’ insurance, according to a sworn statement by Brown’s attorney filed in court papers.
Austin caused Parent’s death “recklessly or with criminal negligence,” according to an Androscoggin County grand jury indictment. Austin also had been charged with shooting his Remington 700, a .308-caliber rifle, within 100 yards of a building or residential building without the property owner’s permission.
According to the Maine Warden Service, Parent and Austin were shooting at the same deer in a partially wooded area between East Road and Route 126. According to investigators, both were hunting with rifles. A preliminary investigation revealed that Austin fired two shots and Parent fired one. Austin’s second shot struck Parent and killed him, according to law enforcement authorities.
The incident was reported at 4:19 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2012, shortly before the end of the hunting day.
Austin told authorities he had spotted two deer — a buck and a doe — walking near a home on Gardner Road. He parked his truck and pursued the deer on foot. He shot once at the buck from the yard of a home he believed was vacant, he said. Austin said he heard a gunshot and saw Parent at the back door of an East Road home. Austin continued to track the deer and thought he saw the white tail of the deer and shot again. He saw his target drop. When he arrived at the site, he realized he had shot someone, he told wardens.
Austin said he screamed for help and checked the shooting victim’s vital signs. He flagged down a driver on a nearby road and had him call 911. He moved Parent’s body closer to the road and performed first aid until emergency responders arrived, he said.
Parent had been wearing a blaze orange vest at the time he was shot, wardens said in court papers.
At an October 2014 hearing, Austin’s attorney, Scott Lynch, argued his client should be allowed to have experts testify at his criminal trial, who would say that the shooting victim had an elevated level of alcohol in his blood at the time of his death and that he had “negligently placed himself in the direct line of fire.”
Prosecutors countered with the argument that the legal burden had been on Austin to identify his target before shooting. Assistant Attorney General John Alsop said testimony from either witness would have been be misleading and irrelevant.
A judge never ruled on the motion because Austin entered into a plea agreement.
cwilliams@sunjournal.com
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