LEWISTON — A Lewiston man charged in a June shooting in the Walmart parking lot denied the charges Wednesday.
Sincere George Androscoggin County Jail photo
Sincere George, 19, appeared in 8th District Court where he pleaded not guilty to charges handed up in an August grand jury indictment. They include elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault and reckless conduct with a firearm. They are punishable by up to 30 years, 10 years and five years, respectively, in prison.
He also was charged with reckless conduct and falsifying physical evidence to which he pleaded not guilty.
Police said the shooting, which injured a 19-year-old man, happened about 9:20 p.m. on June 3 at the Walmart Superstore on Mount Auburn Avenue after a physical altercation.
The victim was reportedly known to George.
Police said he was treated for his injuries and released from a Lewiston hospital.
An unnamed 16-year-old male also was arrested June 4 and charged in connection with the incident, police said.
In an affidavit, a police detective wrote that a witness had been with the victim when they were in the Walmart parking lot.
A black car that police later identified as a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt pulled up next to them in the lot. Two men got out of the car.
The witness told police he and the victim had had issues with the juvenile passenger in the car a couple of months earlier, but believed those issues had been resolved.
The witness told police the passenger approached the victim and said he’d heard the victim had been looking for him. A fistfight erupted. The victim put the passenger in a headlock, but let him go after the passenger stopped resisting.
The driver of the Cobalt returned to the vehicle and retrieved a fanny pack that he tossed to the passenger, according to the witness, who told police he heard, “a loud bang and saw the victim bleeding from the chest area.”
The driver and passenger fled the scene, according to the victim.
George is free on $10,000 cash bail, according to an officer at Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.
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