LEWISTON — Dana Craney Jr., a man charged in the death of his grandmother in Wilton, is also the son of a man who was convicted of murder in 1993.
In 1990, the gunshot-riddled body of Leon Michaud, a 73-year-old used furniture dealer and auctioneer, was found in a culvert off a rural Auburn road by a pair of loggers. Michaud’s killers were arrested three years later and charged with shooting him to death.
Convicted in the crime were then-30-year-old Dana A. Craney, who was living in Lewiston at the time, and Willard Eastman, 41, of North Carolina.
The two were tried jointly and convicted by a jury for shooting Michaud to death with a .38 caliber handgun. An appeal of their case to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court was rejected in 1995.
Craney’s estranged wife at the time, Katherine Craney, was quoted in the Sun Journal saying her conscience forced her to call Auburn police detectives about Michaud’s death.
“I was afraid (Dana) was going to kill me,” Katherine Craney told reporters, “but if I’m going to die for doing this, it’s worth it. I did the right thing.”
Dana A. Craney, the father, is now 52 and serving his sentence at the Maine State Prison in Warren. His earliest possible parole date, according to public prison records, is 2029. Eastman, now 63, is also at the Maine State Prison and not eligible for parole until 2023.
Dana Craney Jr., now 22, was 5 months old when his father was arrested.
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