Judge: Confession admissible in murder trial

AUGUSTA – A judge has ruled that a jailhouse confession that aired on TV will be allowed in the trial of a 22-year-old man charged in last April’s murder of a Franco-American singer in Augusta.

Justice Donald Marden ruled Monday that Mathiew Loisel’s interview with a WGME-TV reporter, in which he admitted to fatally shooting Jean-Paul Poulain, would be allowed as evidence at his trial. The interview was broadcast several times the day Loisel was arrested.

Marden also ruled that Poulain’s alleged deathbed identification of Loisel as the shooter, and of 19-year-old Corey Swift as the accomplice, also was admissible.

Loisel and Swift are charged with murder and robbery.

Loisel’s attorney argued the TV interview should be kept out of the trial because Loisel did not have an attorney present. Marden disagreed, saying Loisel’s constitutional rights were not violated and that he could have said no.