Maine

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Carroll, a deputy sheriff in Oxford County, was convicted in 1938 of the murder of Dr. James G. Littlefield.  Littlefield and his wife disappeared from their home in South Paris on Oct. 13, 1937.  On Oct. 16, Paul Nathaniel (Buddy) Dwyer, 18, also from South Paris, was found sleeping in the couple’s car by police in North Arlington, NJ.  The bodies of the dead couple were found in the trunk.  Dwyer confessed to killing the couple and was extradited to Maine the next day.  He was placed in the custody of Francis Carroll, the father of Dwyer’s former girlfriend, Barbara (Babs) Carroll.  On Dec 2, Dwyer pleaded guilty to the murder of Dr. Littlefield and was sentenced to life in prison.

Within months, Dwyer accused Deputy Carroll of having killed Dr. Littlefield to prevent him from disclosing that the deputy had engaged in incest with his daughter, Babs.  Babs allegedly acknowledged that she engaged in sexual activity with her father on several occasions beginning when she was eleven years old.  Carroll was soon convicted of the murder of Dr. Littlefield, primarily because of Dwyer’s testimony.  Carroll and Dwyer could not both be guilty of murder under the conflicting prosecution theories on which their convictions rested, but both were imprisoned until 1950, when Carroll’s conviction was vacated.  In vacating the conviction, a Superior Court judge declared that the prosecutor in the case “deliberately, purposely, and intentionally . . . practiced fraud and deception on the court and jury.”  (NL)

Dechaine was convicted of the abduction, sexual torture, and murder of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry.  The book Human Sacrifice by James P. Moore, a former ATF agent-in-charge for Maine and New Hampshire, contends that the evidence shows that Dechaine could not have committed the crime.

Dechaine's pickup truck was found parked 450 feet from Cherry's body.  Rope from the truck apparently had been used to bind the girl.  Dechaine's bandana had gagged her.  In addition, two documents bearing Dechaine's name had been discovered in the driveway of the house where Cherry was babysitting before she was killed.

Dechaine has summarized his case as follows:  "An unidentified man/men took four items from an unattended truck and used those items to kill Sarah Cherry and shift responsibility to the owner of the truck, Dennis Dechaine."

At trial, the medical examiner, Ronald Roy, estimated that Cherry had died 30 to 36 hours before he examined the victim's body at 2 p.m. on July 8, 1988.  The longest estimate, based on the presence of rigor mortis, would have put the time of death at 2 a.m., July 7.  However, according to police evidence, Dechaine emerged from the woods before 8:45 p.m. on July 6, when a motorist stopped to pick him up, after which time he has a solid alibi.

Moore said, when he first began looking at the case in 1992, "I was going to prove that all the criticisms [of law enforcement] were unfounded.  It just didn't work out that way."  Some have disputed the timing of Cherry's death, citing ambiguity in the medical examiner's testimony.  However, according to Moore, "Every pathologist interviewed, and every forensic pathology textbook agrees that, in this situation and circumstances, rigor mortis would last a maximum of 36 hours."

Evidence which could have identified Cherry's real killer was destroyed by the state.  This evidence included a hair found on the victim's arm, a hair found on the rope binding victim's wrists, and mystery fingerprints on the door of the house from which Cherry was abducted.  The state attempted to hide DNA test results of blood found under the victim's fingernails.  These results showed the blood belonged to an unknown person.  Dechaine is serving a life without parole sentence.  (Boston Globe) (InjusticeBusters) (www.trialanderrordennis.org)  [7/05]