High court rejects convicted murderer’s appeal

PORTLAND – Maine’s highest court gave short shrift Thursday to a Bangor man’s appeal of his 50-year prison sentence for the fatal stabbing of his pregnant wife.

The Supreme Judicial Court spelled out why it rejected Roscoe Sargent’s claim that the trial judge should have suppressed evidence seized during a police search of his mobile home but brushed aside his other issues without discussion.

Sargent, 31, waived his right to a jury trial and was found guilty by a judge of murdering his wife, Heather Fliegelman Sargent, 20, by stabbing her 47 times with at least two different knives. The body of the victim, who was eight months pregnant with her first child, was found in the couple’s mobile home near four dead cats on Jan. 6, 2003.

The law court heard oral arguments in the case in April when it convened at the Penobscot County Courthouse in Bangor. Students from area high schools and colleges questioned Sargent’s attorney, Joseph Pickering of Bangor, and Donald W. Macomber of the Maine Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case, when the justices took a break between cases.

Thursday’s five-page ruling was unanimous, with Justice Susan Calkins writing the brief opinion. The victim’s aunt expressed relief about the decision.

“I wasn’t really concerned about what the court would do,” said Kristi Fowler Eckmann of Dedham in a telephone interview. “I just had a gut feeling that the court would do the right thing. We are relieved that we don’t have to worry about going through the whole trial again.”

The day Sargent turned himself into authorities, he was accompanied by a lawyer appointed to represent him on federal drug and gun charges. The lawyer then gave Bangor police a key to the mobile home and said Sargent had consented to a search.

Sargent had emptied the couple’s bank account after the killing and partied in Bangor hotels before surrendering, according to trial testimony.

After finding a body in the mobile home, police obtained a warrant signed by a District Court judge that authorized a further search of the dwelling between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Police began their search at 5 p.m., removing the body later identified as that of Heather Fliegelman Sargent, and seizing various items. The search was completed six hours later, at 11 p.m. In his appeal, Sargent said the judge should have suppressed evidence seized during the search because police exceeded the scope of the warrant by staying in the home and seizing items after 9 p.m.

The Maine Supreme Court cited earlier rulings in the New Hampshire Supreme Court and the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston which found that the reason for limiting nighttime searches was to prevent abrupt intrusions on sleeping residents in the dark, a consideration that becomes moot once police begin a search in the daytime.

“In this case, there is no suggestion that the police stayed any longer than necessary to complete the search of the mobile home. They stayed only two hours beyond the time in the warrant. They did not intrude upon or frighten the residents by a later night entry. Sargent has shown no prejudice from the fact that the search lasted until 11 p.m.,” the court said.