Lewiston man sentenced for role in murder scheme

AUBURN — A Lewiston man implicated in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme targeted at his daughter’s boyfriend has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of criminal threatening.

Roger E. Hamel, 43, was sentenced to 364 days at the Androscoggin County Jail, with all but 20 days suspended, and was placed on one year’s probation.

Hamel originally was charged with solicitation to commit murder by offering a local youth $200 to kill John Arsenault, 22, of Lewiston, the man Hamel allegedly intended to have murdered and who is now his son-in-law.

Hamel entered his plea this week in Superior Court as he was about to go on trial on the solicitation count, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The prosecution went along with the plea agreement for a “variety of reasons,” said Deputy District Attorney Craig Turner. “After a discussion with the victim, we felt this was the appropriate disposition,” Turner said.

In imposing a year’s probation, Justice Roland A. Cole said Hamel must have no contact with Arsenault, according to Hamel’s lawyer, Jennifer Ferguson.

Family relations have been restored now that Arsenault and Hamel’s daughter are married and have a child, Ms. Ferguson said. “There is peace now,” she said.

Hamel was arrested last May after he allegedly offered Sean Anderson a loaded .22-caliber pistol and promised to pay him the $200 after he had killed Arsenault.

Anderson warned Arsenault of the alleged plot and notified police, who then equipped Anderson with an electronic listening device that recorded a conversation implicating Hamel, police said at the time.

Following his arrest, Hamel denied that he sought to have Arsenault killed but said he was angry at Arsenault because of harm he thought the man had done to Hamel’s teen-age daughter, according to police.