Mechanic Falls man gets time served for assault

AUBURN — A Mechanic Falls man charged with felony assault stemming from the stabbing of a neighbor at a mobile home park last year has admitted to a lesser offense and was released from jail Friday.

Scott O’Donnell Androscoggin County Jail photo

Scott O’Donnell, 50, appeared Friday in Androscoggin County Superior Court via videoconference from Androscoggin County Jail where he pleaded guilty to a new charge of misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to the 240 days he spent in jail since his arrest in the stabbing.

Charges relating to that May 18, 2022, incident, including elevated aggravated assault and aggravated assault, were expected to be dismissed.

At the time of the assault, O’Donnell had been on probation stemming from a manslaughter conviction in 1991 when he was a juvenile.

Ten years of his 20-year sentence for manslaughter had been suspended and O’Donnell faces the possibility of having to serve some or all of that suspended time for violating his probation.

O’Donnell admitted Friday to having violated his probation by using alcohol and having a dangerous weapon and, in an agreement with prosecutors, will continue his probation and be free on bail for three months after his release from jail.

Conditions of his release include no possession of alcohol or illegal drugs for which he can be searched and tested at random. He must have no contact during that time with the assault victim or a witness in that case.

If he were to comply with the terms of his release for the next three months, he will be sentenced to the 240 days of time served for the probation violation. If he were to violate any of the conditions of his release over the next three months, he could be required to serve part or all of the suspended portion of the manslaughter conviction, or up to 10 years.

Conditions for his 90-day release were added to his probation, including a requirement that he undergo evaluation for substance abuse or substance use disorder as well as a general mental health evaluation and comply with whatever treatment is recommended from those evaluations, Justice Harold Stewart II said.

O’Donnell was accused of stabbing his neighbor at a mobile home park on Callahan Circle in Mechanic Falls the night of May 18, 2022.

A prosecutor in the case told a judge that O’Donnell had been captured on video stabbing the victim with a knife.

Justin Leary, O’Donnell’s attorney, said his client had been punched in the face by Ryan Muncey, which caused O’Donnell to assume a defensive posture.

Leary told Justice Stewart on Friday: “I think it’s a fair resolution. There was significant evidence supporting a self-defense.”

Assistant Attorney General Lisa Bogue told Stewart on Friday that Muncey’s willingness to participate with prosecution of the assault case was “wavering.” Having been made aware of Friday’s plea agreement, Muncey had expressed his “dissatisfaction” with that outcome, Bogue said.

O’Donnell and Muncey apparently had known each other from serving time in prison, according to Leary.

O’Donnell’s fiancée had told a judge at an earlier court hearing that O’Donnell had inadvertently driven onto Muncey’s lawn earlier on the day of their fight.

She said she and O’Donnell had been preparing for their wedding.

That incident apparently sparked a dispute between the neighbors that culminated in the assault.

O’Donnell was also convicted of murder in 1991 as a juvenile, according to Assistant District Attorney Katherine Hudson-MacRae. He “beat and raped an elderly woman after he was helping carry her groceries,” using her cane as a weapon, she said.

Although O’Donnell was a juvenile, he was bound over as an adult and sentenced to 30 years in prison, she said.

While O’Donnell was detained and awaiting the outcome of that charge, “he confided in a cellmate that he murdered another elderly woman by strangling her with a towel,” Hudson-MacRae said during an earlier court hearing, resulting in the manslaughter conviction.

O’Donnell had “indicated that he chooses the elderly because they’re weak, and he fantasized about raping them,” Hudson-MacRae had told that judge.