PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Maine’s highest court has upheld the murder conviction of a man who was sentenced for the 1980 death of a 16-year-old in a case that stymied investigators for decades.
Philip Scott Fournier was convicted and sentenced last year to 45 years for the killing of Joyce McLain in East Millinocket. Lawyers asked Maine’s supreme court to toss the verdict. They argued that Fournier’s trial was plagued with mistakes, such as the exclusion of evidence of an alternative suspect and exclusion of relevant testimony.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court published an opinion on Thursday that it is affirming the conviction of murder. The opinion states the court “did not abuse its discretion” in the way it handled evidence and testimony in the case. Fournier was indicted in 2016.
