Supreme Court finding may alter Maine sentences

PORTLAND – A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on sentencing enhancements could affect the time that a former child protection worker convicted of manslaughter and a Sabattus man convicted of sexually assaulting a Bates College student spend in prison.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday will consider whether the high court’s decision affects the sentences of Sally Schofield, 43, of Chelsea and Christian Averill, 22, of Sabattus.

In Blakely v. Washington, a Washington state kidnapping case, the federal high court in June ruled unconstitutional the state sentencing guidelines that allow a judge to use facts not considered by a jury to increase a defendant’s punishment.

In light of that decision, the Maine supreme court asked to hear arguments in two cases pending before it on how the Blakely decision affects those sentences.

Schofield was sentenced in September 2002 to 28 years in prison with eight years suspended for the asphyxiation death of her foster child, who died after being bound with duct tape. Logan Marr, 5, died on Jan. 31, 2001, in the basement of Schofield’s Chelsea home.

Averill was sentenced in March 2003 to 34 years in prison with all but 24 years suspended and 10 years probation. He was convicted of attacking a woman in the bathroom of a campus academic building at Bates College in Lewiston while she was studying for finals in April 2002.

Schofield and Averill were sentenced under a Maine law that created a two-tiered sentencing formula for the most serious class of crimes. That provision was changed by the Legislature earlier this year.

“Our position as outlined in our brief is that it does not apply,” William Stokes, assistant attorney general, said Friday, pointing out that sentencings in Maine are structured differently from in Washington state.

“Class A offenses are crimes against a person and, generally, are crimes of violence,” he said. “We don’t believe these sentences were unfair or unjust.”

Stokes refused to elaborate on the arguments the Maine Attorney General’s Office will present to the court.

Attorneys for Schofield and Averill previously argued before the Maine supreme court that their clients’ sentences were excessive and that the judges who sentenced them abused their discretion.

The justices have not yet issued their decisions in either case.

The argument over the impact of the Blakely decision is far from over. The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled arguments for Monday, Oct. 4, over how the Blakely decision has affected sentences handed down in federal courts throughout the nation.