Monday, May 21, 2012
By Betty Adams badams@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer
SKOWHEGAN -- The deputy who arrived first at the Pittston home invasion scene two years ago thought the young girl in the bed upstairs was dead.
David Leaming/Morning Sentinel Defendant Daniel L. Fortune sits between attorneys Robert Ringer, left, and Pamela Ames, right, during his trial Thursday, May 6, 2010, at the Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan, Maine, on 14 charges relating to the machete attack on William Guerrette Jr. and his daughter Nicole in 2008.
AP
“Her head was split open like an egg,” Deputy David Bucknam testified Friday on the second day of the trial of Daniel Fortune. “I had my hand on her shoulder and she didn't move at that point.”
Bucknam said he believed the girl – Nicole Guerrette, then 10 – had been shot with a 12-gauge shotgun. The Kennebec County Sheriff's patrol officer was responding to a report of a home invasion with shots fired.
Fortune, 22, of Augusta, is charged with aggravated attempted murder of Nicole and her father, William Guerrette Jr., and a number of other charges related to the May 27, 2008, home invasion.
The Guerrettes each suffered permanent injuries inflicted by an intruder wielding a machete, investigators say.
Bucknam said he would hear a male – later identified as the homeowner William Guerrette – calling for help when he first entered the Guerrette home accompanied by a Gardiner police officer and a Maine State Police trooper. Bucknam found Guerrette lying in a hallway on the main floor of the house in a pool of blood.
Bucknam testified in Somerset County Superior Court on Friday that he heard William Guerrette at one point identify his assailant as a black man. A second witness, Christopher McLaughlin, a Gardiner firefighter and paramedic, testified he heard Guerrette say his assailant was not Daniel Fortune, whom Guerrette knew, but an unknown black man he described as tall and thin.
The indictment describes Fortune as a 5-foot-10, 165-pound black man.
A codefendant in the home invasion case, Fortune's foster brother Leo R. Hylton, 20, also of Augusta, pleaded guilty to a number of charges related to the predawn attack at the Guerrette home and is serving an initial 50 years behind bars.
Hylton is described on jail records as 6-foot-6, 215-pound black man.
Tweet
Copyright ©2012 MaineToday Media, Inc.
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Deals
Maine Yellow Pages
Further Discussion
Here at PressHerald.com we value our readers and are committed to growing our community by encouraging you to add to the discussion. To ensure conscientious dialogue we have implemented a strict no-bullying policy. To participate, you must follow our Terms of Use.Questions about the article? Add them below and we’ll try to answer them or do a follow-up post as soon as we can. Technical problems? Email them to us with an exact description of the problem. Make sure to include: