ELLSWORTH – The mother of a Southwest Harbor woman formally charged Friday with an elderly woman’s murder whispered the words “I love you” as her daughter left the Hancock County courthouse in tears.

The state alleges that Michelle Mills, 37, was responsible for the January killing of 83-year-old Jacqueline Evans inside the elderly woman’s home in the coastal fishing community of Southwest Harbor.

Mills made her first court appearance Friday as her mother, stepfather and sister sat behind her in the courtroom. Her attorney entered a plea of not guilty on her behalf.

“She is understandably upset. She feels like she has lost her freedom,” defense attorney Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor said outside the courthouse. “She has never engaged in violent acts. This is a shock to those who know her.”

Mills was indicted secretly on Wednesday by a grand jury in Hancock County. She was arrested Thursday in Bangor, where her attorney said she had been staying in recent weeks.

“She had left Southwest Harbor and was living in Bangor, trying to find a job,” he explained, adding that Mills maintains her innocence.

Silverstein, her court-appointed counsel, and Steven Juskewitch of Ellsworth, a local attorney who has been retained by Mills’ family, appeared in court Friday on the woman’s behalf.

“Her family is shocked, upset. They’re basically in disbelief,” said Juskewitch, a longtime family friend who served as the family’s de facto spokesman outside the courthouse.

Inside, Mills wore street clothes and had shackles on her hands for her brief initial appearance before District Court Judge Bernard Staples, who read the indictment during the Hancock County Superior Court proceeding.

“The state is charging by way of indictment that Michelle Mills intentionally or knowingly caused the death of Jacqueline Evans, or engaged in conduct that manifested a depraved indifference to the value of human life and which in fact caused the death of Jacqueline Evans,” Staples said.

Even though he was not required to do so at the initial appearance Friday, Silverstein entered a not guilty plea on Mills’ behalf. A murder charge in Maine carries a potential sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

After the proceeding, the woman was led from the courthouse back to the Hancock County Jail where she will be held without bail until a hearing.

Hancock County District Attorney Michael Povich, who represented the state for Friday’s appearance on behalf of the Maine Attorney General’s Office, said that a bail hearing must come within five days.

“She is entitled to bail, even for murder,” he said.

Even though the indictment was unsealed on Friday, few new details have surfaced surrounding Evans’ mysterious death.

The elderly woman was found unconscious in her Alder Lane home on Jan. 20 after a friend stopped to check on her. Evans was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor where she died two days later.

The woman’s death was classified as a homicide early in the investigation, but officials are not saying at what point Mills was considered a suspect. Police did say that Mills was acquainted with Evans, but have not elaborated on their relationship.

Police searched a young woman’s apartment in Southwest Harbor shortly after the homicide and impounded the same woman’s car a short time later. Police never released that woman’s identity and could not confirm this week whether that the woman was Mills.

Silverstein, a former prosecutor and well-known criminal defense attorney who has defended several murder suspects, admitted that his client was interviewed by police early in the investigation. He added that she has been cooperative throughout the process.

“She has known about the investigation. She could have made herself scarce,” he said.

The police affidavit associated with the case has been impounded by the court and will not be made public, according to Assistant Attorney General William Stokes.

“We don’t have the power to undo that. Only a judge can,” he said by telephone Friday. “We’re not trying to play coy – we just feel that information should not be dribbled out. It should come in the manner of court proceedings.”

The Attorney General’s Office also requested that Evans’ autopsy report be withheld, something Stokes said is not uncommon in severe cases.

The woman’s official cause of death still has not been revealed.