September 22, 2024
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2 men indicted in unrelated slayings

BANGOR – Two men were charged with murder Monday by a Penobscot County grand jury, one for a killing that occurred last month and another for an unrelated slaying that took place 12 years ago.

Both men are in custody in out-of-state jails and the Attorney General’s Office now is working to get both men returned to Maine to face the charges.

Carl Heath, 20, of Fryeburg was indicted for the beating death last month of a Bangor cabdriver, and 45-year-old Patrick Roland Alexandre of West Virginia was charged with the 1989 slaying of a 27-year-old Ellsworth man whose remains were found last year at a Bradford woodlot.

Heath currently is in custody in New Jersey but may be returned to Bangor within a few days. On Friday, Heath waived extradition during a hearing at the Bergen County Superior Court in New Jersey, according to his attorney, Todd Crawford of Bridgton. The waiver came three weeks after Heath said he intended to fight being returned to Maine.

Heath remained in a Bergen County jail Monday, though Assistant Attorney General William Stokes said investigators were prepared to go to New Jersey and bring Heath back as soon as possible.

The grand jury on Monday handed up a multitude of charges against Heath, including a Class A murder charge for the death of 60-year-old Donna Leen, whose body was found in her cab in a Corinth field on Oct. 14, the day after she disappeared.

Leen’s fatal head injuries were caused by blows from a hammer, and a bloody hammer was found inside the taxi.

The jury also charged Heath with two counts of Class B burglary, including an allegation that he burglarized the Fruit Street School in Bangor on Oct. 12, the day before police say he killed Leen.

Heath also is charged with stealing a laptop computer on that day, though it was not clear if the computer was stolen from the school.

The indictment further alleges that Heath broke into a construction trailer located on Stillwater Avenue on Oct. 12 and stole a computer printer, a fax machine and office supplies.

Heath allegedly returned to the construction site the next day and burglarized a truck that belonged to Lane Construction Corp.

It was the construction site where Leen was sent to pick up Heath on Oct. 13.

The Attorney General’s Office has not commented on the motive for the murder, but on Monday the jury indicted Heath for the robbery of Leen.

Heath also was indicted on two counts of burglary to a motor vehicle and the unauthorized use of a vehicle, for allegedly stealing a car from a Charleston homeowner before fleeing the state.

Heath was arrested on a New Jersey highway just days after Leen’s body was discovered, after a patrol officer saw him driving erratically.

Heath originally refused to waive extradition to Maine but has since changed his mind, according to his attorney.

Heath has a history of petty crime and mental illness and has escaped before from the Bangor Mental Health Institute. His brother, Smokey Heath Jr., faces charges of beating a man to death with a hammer in Benton last March.

Few details were available Monday about Alexandre, who reportedly is in custody in a West Virginia jail. The family of Joseph Cloak Jr., contacted at their Ellsworth home, refused to comment about what if any connection there was between Cloak and Alexandre.

Alexandre also was indicted on a kidnapping charge, but Stokes refused to comment on any details about the case. He did request and receive from Justice Andrew Mead a “nonbailable” arrest warrant for Alexandre.

Alexandre was arrested on a warrant in November 2000 outside a van parked at the weigh station on Interstate 95 in Old Town.

The warrant, issued by the U.S. Marshal’s Office in Charleston, W.Va., alleged that Alexandre failed to show up at a jail in West Virginia where he was supposed to serve a sentence for a conviction for cultivation of marijuana.

At the time of his arrest, police reported that Alexandre had a history of escape and violence. Police found eight white envelopes containing other people’s birth certificates in his possession.

Alexandre eventually was sent back to West Virginia, and his connection to Maine remained unclear Monday.

Alexandre was arrested in Maine just one week before Cloak’s body was discovered in Bradford. When his body was unearthed on Nov. 30, 2000, police said they had received a tip from a jail inmate that Cloak’s body would be at the Bradford lot. Alexandre spent some time at the Penobscot County Jail before being sent back to West Virginia.

The cause of Cloak’s death has not been released.


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