High court upholds murder conviction

PORTLAND – The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Monday upheld the murder conviction of a Jonesboro woman who is serving 47 years in prison for shooting her live-in boyfriend, then driving around for 12 hours before turning herself in.

The justices were not persuaded by the points raised in the appeal of Katrina Bridges, who was found guilty in a second trial in Auburn after the supreme court vacated a guilty verdict from her first trial in Machias.

Bridges argued that the court should not have allowed the jury in Auburn to hear a reference to Bridges’ previous trial. The comment was by the state chief medical examiner on the witness stand. She also contended that the jury should have been instructed on the defense of adequate provocation.

Bridges was convicted last October in a second trial after a jury verdict in Androscoggin County Superior Court. She was sentenced to 47 years, the same sentence she had received in her first trial.

Bridges had been charged in January 2001 with the murder of Christopher Ingraham. She was found guilty in September 2001 by a Washington County jury.

Upon appeal of her first conviction, the supreme court concluded that some statements taken from interviews with police should not have been used against her.

The court vacated her conviction and called for a new trial away from Washington County.

In the second trial, the state did not attempt to use any of the statements Bridges made to police during interviews on Jan. 3, 2001.