Mental evaluation needed for jailed arson suspect

ELLSWORTH – An arson suspect will remain in jail at least until an evaluation of his mental state has been completed.

Matthew A. McAfee, 26, of Bangor has been held at Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth for nine months, ever since he was charged with arson after a fire at a large white function tent that had been erected on the front lawn at the Asticou Inn in the Mount Desert village of Northeast Harbor.

McAfee appeared Tuesday morning in Hancock County Superior Court in Ellsworth to try to get his bail reduced so he can get out of jail and receive substance abuse counseling while waiting for his case to be resolved. McAfee is receiving some counseling in jail, but it is not enough, according to his defense attorney, Charles Helfrich.

“We would like to get him into that counseling that he needs,” Helfrich told Justice Donald Marden.

“I’ve been here for nearly nine months,” McAfee added.

McAfee’s current cash bail is set at several thousand dollars, but Helfrich requested that it be set at $500. The purpose of a defendant’s bail is to be financially significant for that defendant, Helfrich said, and McAfee’s financial resources are limited enough that $500 would be significant.

Carletta Bassano, deputy district attorney, told Marden that McAfee’s bail is at the low end for someone who stands accused of a Class A felony such as arson, a conviction which can result in a sentence of up to 30 years. She agreed with Helfrich that McAfee does not have a significant prior record but said prior record is not always an indicator of a defendant’s flight risk. Furnishing liquor to a minor, operating a motor vehicle under the influence of intoxicants and criminal mischief are among McAfee’s earlier convictions.

Bassano said McAfee’s situation does not pass as a change of circumstance that would warrant a change in his bail. His situation is essentially the same as it was when he was arrested in June 2007, she said.

McAfee allegedly used gasoline to set the tent on fire and told police he wanted to victimize the group that was expected to use the tent, the prosecutor said. The Lexington Seminar, an annual education program at the inn for theological seminaries and divinity schools, was scheduled to be held in the tent before it was set ablaze early in the morning of June 18, 2007.

“[McAfee said] he hated Christians, he was going to kill Christians, and that’s why he went after this structure,” Bassano told the judge.

McAfee was intoxicated when police and firefighters went to the scene, police have said.

The judge, however, was reluctant to interrupt a mental evaluation process that McAfee is going through. The evaluation, which is meant to consider McAfee’s mental state at the time of the alleged incident, could be important to McAfee’s case and therefore should be completed before the issue of amending his bail is decided, Marden said.

Marden continued the bail amendment motion until March 28, at which time it will be reconsidered by the court.

btrotter@bangordailynews.net

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