Boy denies charges in shooting death

SKOWHEGAN – Cody Rioux, 14, of Norridgewock fired a bizarre, one-in-a-million shot that killed his friend and soon-to-be stepbrother in March, his attorney said Monday.

“This was an unfathomable accident,” attorney Walter McKee of Augusta said outside 13th District Court.

Rioux made his first appearance in court Monday before Judge Charles LaVerdiere, entering a denial of the charges of manslaughter and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon in the death of Joshua Sawyer, 15, of Pittsfield.

Dressed neatly in a white shirt and dark tie with trimmed blond hair, Rioux looked years younger than 14. His mother and father, one set of grandparents and Sawyer’s mother, Richelle Lawn of Pittsfield, were in the courtroom.

The mother of the victim and the father of the accused, Scott Rioux, 34, of Martin Stream Road, Norridgewock, are engaged and held hands throughout the proceeding.

Rioux was released into his parent’s custody pending a trial date later this year.

“Everyone has been incredibly supportive of Cody,” McKee said after the hearing. “Cody and Josh were very, very close. Cody looked up to Josh. This has been a nightmare for everyone, and everyone is suffering.”

McKee explained the circumstances of the shooting after the hearing. He said Rioux, Sawyer and Sawyer’s 14-year-old brother, Nathan, were in a cornfield in Norridgewock on Sunday, March 19.

“There was a little bit of hunting and a little bit of target shooting,” McKee said. He said that all three boys were armed. McKee had a .22-caliber rifle, Joshua Sawyer had a shotgun and Nathan Sawyer also had a rifle.

“This was not unlike what 14- and 15-year-old boys have been doing in central Maine for 200 years,” McKee said. “All the boys were shooting at different times.”

McKee said Rioux shot “in the direction of Joshua,” but that he had no idea Sawyer was there because he was obscured by bushes and trees. McKee also said that state police testing of the rifle indicated “it was wildly inaccurate.”

“He fired the shot from several hundred feet, a very long distance,” McKee said. “He also had very little experience and, by his own admission, was not a good shot.”

Sawyer, a standout athlete and well-liked student at Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield, died at the scene from a gunshot to the neck.

Assistant Attorney General William Bagdoyan told Judge LaVerdiere that his office had not made a final decision about charging Rioux as an adult, but that it was unlikely.

The judge explained to the teen that if found guilty of manslaughter as a juvenile, he could be sent to a teen correctional facility until he is 21 years old.

Scott Rioux is accused of supplying the guns to the three teenagers, and through his attorney, Walter Hanstein of Farmington, has entered a plea of not guilty to three counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of hunting on Sunday.

No date has been set for either the father or the son’s trials.