Carmel man was beaten, hogtied before his death Slaying suspect formally charged in Bangor District Court

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BANGOR – Dressed in an orange Penobscot County Jail jumpsuit, Peter Tuller, 33, was formally charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with killing a Carmel man whose body was found beaten and hogtied in the bedroom of a Pier Street apartment.

An autopsy determined that Michael Demmons, 47, of Carmel died Sunday of blunt-force trauma to the head, neck and chest and from suffocation, an official with the state medical examiner’s office said Tuesday.

According to affidavits filed in District Court, Demmons was discovered shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday with a white cloth and plastic bags around his head and a brown extension cord tying his arms and legs.

Blood was found on his body and on the floor and wall of the bedroom.

Tuesday’s hearing lasted about six minutes.

District Court Judge Ann Murray read the murder charge and took under advisement defense motions. Afterward, Tuller was returned to the Penobscot County Jail, where he was held without bail, awaiting arraignment.

Tuller, who has served time in prison for an assault conviction, was found hiding under a bed in another bedroom in the same apartment at 72 Pier St., court documents revealed. There was blood on the jeans shorts he was wearing.

He admitted beating up Demmons and hogtying him with the extension cord to keep him from moving, according to court documents.

Tuller told police that Demmons had raised a hand to Maria Santos, 46, Demmons’ summer roommate, and that Demmons had taken advantage of Santos, who is Tuller’s ex-girlfriend.

“He was only supposed to be smartened up,” Tuller told police during interviews that lasted into the early morning hours Monday. “He wasn’t supposed to end up the way he did.”

Tuller told police that he checked on Demmons about 10 minutes before the first officers arrived and that Demmons was still alive.

Friends and family of Demmons, some of them coming from southern Maine, filled the courtroom Tuesday. It was an emotional time for them.

One man, who would only identify himself as a relative, stood up during the proceeding and raised his hand, trying to catch the attention of the judge. He quickly was pulled back to his seat by other family members, who gently told him it was not the time for him to address the court.

Tuller was convicted in 2002 for criminal threatening and bail violations, and sentenced to three years with all but nine months suspended, Deputy District Attorney Mike Roberts said Tuesday.

A year later Tuller was sentenced to one year on an assault conviction and 27 months for two probation violations to be served concurrently.

For some family members, Demmons’ death was still hard to talk about Tuesday.

Laurie Stevenson, 40, of Brunswick described her brother as she sat outside the Bangor courtroom after the hearing.

She said he was good-natured and shied away from confrontation, and Demmons was just 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 130 pounds. His sister said he was born with cerebral palsy, which slowed his mental development. By his mid-40s, she said, Demmons had the mental capacity of a 14-year-old.

One of six children that included four boys, Demmons was a soft-spoken follower who relied on others, Stevenson said. His mother had taken care of him, but after her death almost a year ago from cancer, Demmons had lived with Stevenson, her husband, Scott, and their four sons.

“He needed someone to give him guidance and someone to give him direction,” Stevenson said.

For the summer, Demmons had wanted to return to the Bangor area, where he had grown up. So he moved in with Santos, who was considered his best friend.

By all accounts, there was a lot of drinking Sunday when Santos held a barbecue at the apartment house.

Tuller attended and had gotten into an argument with Demmons. Santos told police that before she took a nap on the couch that evening, she checked with Demmons to see if he was OK, and he told her he was.

Later Sunday evening, Santos awakened and took a bath, then tried to check on Demmons, she told police. Santos walked by his bedroom, but Tuller repeatedly wouldn’t let her open the bedroom door, according to the court documents.

After a while, she returned to the door, managed to open it, and saw Demmons lying face down with bags over his head.

Santos told police that Tuller would not let her leave the apartment, but that she later managed to slip away to get some cigarettes and called her ex-husband, who urged her to call the police.

When police arrived, Tuller acknowledged beating Demmons “to the point he couldn’t defend himself,” but alleged that Santos put the bags over the man’s head and tightened them.

“She wanted him to die,” he told police. “I only wanted to beat him.”

Authorities have not charged Santos with anything in connection with the death.

Deputy Attorney General Bill Stokes, whose office is prosecuting the case, said he could not comment because the case is still under investigation.

Brewer lawyer Don Brown, who has been appointed to represent Tuller, said he had not seen all the court documents and could not comment.

During a break in the lengthy interviews with police Monday, detectives gave Tuller a cigarette to smoke.

An ember from the lit cigarette fell on Tuller’s thigh.

“That little burn from the [ember’s] gonna be a lot less painful than what’s yet to come,” he said.