AUBURN — A Poland man accused in the death of his older brother on Thanksgiving Day was charged Tuesday with murder.
Justin Butterfield Androscoggin County Jail
An Androscoggin County grand jury handed up an indictment against Justin Butterfield, 34, charging him with the intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder of Gabriel Damour, 38.
A murder conviction in Maine is punishable by 25 years to life in prison.
In order for a defendant to proceed to trial on a murder charge, a grand jury must hand up an indictment or the defendant must waive indictment.
Butterfield has been held at Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn without bail since his arrest on Nov. 24.
A judge has ordered a mental evaluation of Butterfield to determine whether he is competent to stand trial on the murder charge.
He appeared in 8th District Court in Lewiston on Nov. 28 where he was appointed an attorney to represent him.
That attorney, Verne Paradie, has said his client intends to pursue an affirmative defense of insanity or abnormal condition of mind.
Authorities recovered Damour’s body inside Butterfield’s trailer home at 14 Poplar Drive in Poland on Thanksgiving Day.
After conducting an autopsy, the state’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide. No cause of death has been released by the Maine Department of Public Safety.
The trailer at 14 Poplar Drive in Poland is cordoned off behind police tape Nov. 25 after a killing Thanksgiving morning. Justin Butterfield is charged with murder in the death of his brother. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal file
Butterfield’s neighbors and friends told the Sun Journal that Butterfield has a documented mental illness, was prone to delusions and had been institutionalized before.
He was found by authorities still inside the home along with Damour’s mutilated body.
Butterfield was reportedly close to his brother and had a good relationship with his own son and daughter.
Those who knew him also said he could be frightening and dangerous when off his psychiatric medication.
His former girlfriend, Yaicha Provencher, said his mental health began to deteriorate about four years ago. He experienced paranoia, and visual and auditory hallucinations, she said.
He was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Since then, Butterfield had been hospitalized eight times, but always released too soon, she said, without any long-term treatment plan.
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