AUBURN — A Lewiston man denied a murder charge Friday in the July shooting of a Massachusetts man on Howe Street in Lewiston.
Mark J. Sinclair Androscoggin County Jail
Mark J. Sinclair, 28, was charged Tuesday by an Androscoggin County grand jury with intentional or knowing murder of John Paquin, 20, of Worcester, Massachusetts, on July 17.
According to an affidavit in support of the charge, Maine State Police Detective Cpl. Reid Bond wrote that one day after the shooting, police located a handgun in an apartment where Sinclair apparently had been staying.
Police also recovered video footage that showed the fatal shooting, Bond said.
Sinclair appeared Friday in Androscoggin County Superior Court by videoconference from Androscoggin County Jail. His attorney, James Howaniec, entered a not guilty plea to the murder charge.
If convicted, Sinclair could be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
He is being held in jail without bail.
On July 18, police executed a search warrant at an apartment at 12 Howe St. where Sinclair had been staying, Bond wrote. They found a 9 mm Taurus handgun on the kitchen counter. Evidence technicians had recovered six 9 mm shell casings at the scene of Paquin’s shooting at 30 Howe St.
In the apartment, police also found a pair of black jeans, a belt and a black sweatshirt in a bedroom. A bank card belonging to Sinclair was found in a pocket of the jeans.
In the bathroom, police found a cellphone in the toilet.
That same day, police viewed surveillance video of the shooting scene. It showed two people matching the descriptions of Sinclair and Dajquan Adams, who stood close to each other while talking to Paquin. He held his hands behind his back while looking at the two men.
“Sinclair can be seen in the video shooting John Paquin with a handgun multiple times,” Bond wrote in his affidavit.
After Paquin fell to the ground face down, Sinclair was seen approaching him and shooting him again in the back of the head.
Sinclair and Adams fled the scene toward 12 Howe St., Bond wrote.
A witness told police she heard gunshots, went outside and saw Sinclair running from the area of 30 Howe St. She described his clothing, including a black sweatshirt and red basketball shorts. She said he wore a face mask and she believed he carried a gun, according to Bond’s affidavit.
The witness said she saw Sinclair run into the apartment building at 12 Howe St. She said he later emerged from there without a face mask and had changed into a T-shirt. Sinclair walked back to the area of the shooting before turning and running in the direction of Sabattus Street, she told police.
When Sinclair was arrested about 6 p.m. July 17, he was wearing red basketball shorts and a T-shirt, Bond wrote.
He told police he had spent most of that day at a home on Pierce Street when he hadn’t been jogging. He said he’d been informed of a shooting at 30 Howe St. while he was at the Pierce Street home.
When he walked to the Howe Street area, he was arrested.
A woman at the Pierce Street address told police she didn’t know anyone named Mark and that no one by that name had been at her home that day, Bond wrote.
A medical examiner said the cause of Paquin’s death was gunshot wounds and the manner of his death was homicide.
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