Tuesday, May 22, 2012
By Betty Adams badams@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer
SKOWHEGAN -- A jury on Friday convicted Daniel L. Fortune of all criminal charges related to a May 27, 2008, home invasion in Pittston that left a father and daughter seriously injured.
Daniel L. Fortune
Staff photo by David Leaming
Fortune, 22, of Augusta, was accused of 11 crimes, including four charges of aggravated attempted murder -- two involving premeditation and two involving extreme cruelty -- in the machete attack on William Guerrette Jr., then 48, and Nicole Guerrette, then 10.
Fortune's trial in Somerset County Superior Court lasted seven days. The jury deliberated for about 4 1/2 hours before returning the verdicts.
The two victims and other members of their family watched from the benches in the back of the courtroom as the verdicts were returned. They hugged and cried quietly as the foreman answered "guilty" to each of the 11 questions posed by the clerk.
"We can live the rest of our lives without fear," William Guerrette said afterward, as he and his family gathered outside the courthouse. "Justice was done."
Nicole, now 12, smiled for the cameras and said, "I had a helmet; now I have a head of hair." She suffered horrific head injuries when she was hacked by the machete, and had to wear a protective helmet for months.
Fortune had pleaded guilty May 4 to stealing a safe containing more than $100,000 worth of property -- including $30,000 in cash -- from the Guerrette house. That theft occurred Nov. 17, 2007. He also pleaded guilty to failing to appear for a jury trial on that charge and to violating a condition of release.
Fortune admitted the safe theft on the stand in front of jurors on Thursday. He also admitted being at the Guerrette household the morning the Guerrettes were hurt.
But he denied having any role in the attack: Fortune blamed the home-invasion crimes and the machete attack on his roommate and former foster brother, Leo R. Hylton, now 20.
Hylton pleaded guilty to attempted murder and other charges related to the home invasion, and was sentenced Feb. 26 to 90 years in prison with all but 50 years suspended and 15 years' probation.
Part of Justice Michaela Murphy's instructions to the jury Friday included an explanation of accomplice liability.
She told them a person can be guilty of a crime "if he personally does the acts that constitute the crime, or if he is an accomplice of another person who actually commits the crime."
Murphy's instructions said "mere presence" does not prove that a person is an accomplice.
"He may be guilty of the crime as an accomplice if he engages in any conduct, however slight, that promotes or facilitates the commission of the crime," she told the jury.
The prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Alan Kelley, said in his closing argument that the aggravated attempted murders and subsequent search through the house for three other members of the Guerrette family were a result of "Daniel Fortune's greed and his unwillingness to return to jail."
Kelley said Fortune and Hylton went to the Guerrettes' home looking for money and they took weapons.
"There were two knives, there were two attackers and two victims ... both men bore knives, both men used them," Kelley said.
Pamela Ames, the defense attorney, said in her closing argument that the crimes were all committed by Hylton.
She said Hylton stole his aunt's car and drove from Augusta to the Guerrette's Pittston home early that morning to collect a drug debt from Ryan Guerrette, a former classmate and teammate of Fortune.
"(Fortune) didn't drive it," she said. "He didn't have the machete, the folding knife; he didn't have the duct tape. He knocked a sensor off the wall. He thought they got Leo on tape. He thought it was a camera. Leo hands him Leo's knife. He takes it from the sheath, whacks the sensor, closes the knife and hands it back to Leo.
"That's not accomplice liability, not acting as a principal."
She told jurors to find Fortune guilty of one crime -- violating conditions of release -- for being at the Guerrette home May 27, 2008, but she asked them to clear him of all five attempted murder charges as well as two counts of elevated aggravated assault and one count each of robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, and burglary.
"Daniel Fortune's mistake in this is not realizing how far Leo would go," Ames said. "His mistake is not understanding, in time, the violence Leo Hylton was capable of."
Jurors returned to the courtroom twice during deliberations.
They sought clarification of accomplice liability as it relates to premeditation.
They asked whether blood had been found on a folding knife.
And they asked whether they had to find that the defendant attempted to murder Melanie, Ashley and Ryan Guerrette; or whether the defendant was guilty of the single attempted murder charge if he attempted to murder just one of them. The judge told them that, if the state proved he attempted to murder one of them, that would be sufficient for a guilty verdict.
Jurors also asked whether bringing a weapon constitutes premeditation for attempted murder.
Fortune wants to be sentenced as soon as possible, Ames told the judge.
Justice Michaela Murphy set a sentencing hearing tentatively for 1 p.m. June 2 and said it would likely be in Augusta, depending on the availability of a courtroom.
Each of the four counts of aggravated attempted murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
"I think this case calls for the most severe of penalties," District Attorney Evert Fowle said late Friday.
Betty Adams -- 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com
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: