AUBURN — He stood in the courtroom facing the judge, his lanky frame clad in a bright orange jail suit.

The assistant district attorney stood behind a table, reading from a court document.

“What's alleged is that the defendant purposely struck Kyle Karkos with his vehicle as part of a revenge attack for a 2006 driving fatality Mr. Karkos was involved in.”

William “Jim” Panzino, 21, shook his head.

“That is not true at all,” he told the judge.

Eighth District Court Judge Rick Lawrence told Panzino he would have a chance to tell his side of the story.

“Oh, I hope I do,” Panzino said.

True or not, the emotional effects of the 2006 auto accident involving Karkos and Kenny Jellison Jr. referenced by the prosecutor did not ebb in the days and months after the crash.

As they now move on to jobs and start families of their own, some of the teens affected by that accident four years ago, as well as the families of the two teens in the accident, say they haven't been able to put the past behind them.

Reports of harassment and intimidation between the two factions abound — even, apparently, among those who didn't know Jellison — with the acrimony possibly resurfacing last week when Karkos was struck by the car Panzino was driving.

It all began when a car crash on April 5, 2006, killed Kenny Jellison Jr., 18, of Auburn.

Karkos was driving a Honda Civic down Canal Street in Lewiston when he lost control of the car and failed to make a left-hand turn. The car slid sideways and crashed into a light pole.

Riding in the passenger seat, Jellison was killed instantly.

Witnesses said Karkos had been driving at high speeds and had been racing another car.

The two teens had been friends and schoolmates at Edward Little High School.

Karkos, 17 at the time, was charged with manslaughter, reckless conduct and driving to endanger, all felonies. He was tried as a juvenile in 8th District Court in Lewiston before a judge, who also served as jury.

He was acquitted one day after his 19th birthday; the charges were dismissed.

The judge said it was unclear whether Karkos had continued to race after the other car stopped for a red light. Karkos had driven on, running two red lights. No one, not even the Maine State Police trooper who wrote the accident reconstruction report, could say how fast Karkos was driving in the 25-mph posted zone when he lost control of his car, Judge Mary Gay Kennedy said.

A week and a half ago, more than four years after the fatal crash, another car accident involving Karkos served as a flash point to the long-simmering hostilities among friends of Karkos and Jellison.

This time, Karkos was the victim.

Some say the recent accident had nothing to do with the fatal crash. Others, including police, are calling it a revenge assault.

It was the evening of June 9 at Great Falls Plaza. The carnival was in town.

According to a police affidavit, Panzino admitted being the driver when his blue 1995 Nissan Sentra struck Karkos. The impact launched Karkos, by some estimates, 20 feet in the air.

Police tracked Panzino and his car to a home in Turner, where his girlfriend, Faith Hersey, lived. Police say Panzino said he panicked after hitting Karkos and fled the scene.

He told police he had been smoking a cigarette as he was driving away from the carnival. He tried to toss the butt out of the car, but it hit the rolled-up window and landed in his lap. As he frantically brushed the embers from his lap, he looked up and suddenly saw Karkos in front of his car. He tried to swerve, but “bumped” Karkos, he told police.

Patrol officer Alfred J. Daigle, who wrote the affidavit, said Panzino changed his story later. He said there was a vehicle next to his that was trying to pass. He sped up. That explained why some witnesses heard him rev his engine before his car hit Karkos.

Daigle said he saw no evidence of a lit cigarette having landed in Panzino's lap.

Daigle took statements from witnesses at the accident scene.

Three teenage boys said they heard a man who had been in a fight shortly before the incident yell to someone, “Hit that kid with a car.” They also said a car had sped up and swerved in Karkos' direction before it hit him.

One woman wrote in a statement that she saw a teal-colored car speed past her, swerve toward the curb and hit a man.

Another woman said the driver of the car that hit Karkos was laughing as he drove away from the scene.

Karkos' close friend, Craig Chamberlain, 20, told police that since the 2006 crash, Panzino and his friend Kass Michaud, 22, had been harassing Karkos. Chamberlain said he and Karkos had had a fight earlier that evening with Michaud and Panzino because of the harassment. Afterward, Chamberlain said, he and Karkos were walking toward the carnival from the area of the nearby Post Office. They began to cross the street in the direction of Karkos' mother, Kelley.

Chamberlain said he was walking ahead of Karkos when he heard a bang. He turned and saw Karkos on the ground. Chamberlain said he chased the car up Hampshire Street and memorized part of the license plate number.

Daigle later went to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, where he saw Karkos, who was strapped to a backboard, his head immobilized by a neck brace. He had many scrapes on his face, right hand, right wrist and arm. He had dirt and grass on his chest.

Karkos' mother told Daigle she watched her son and Chamberlain walk toward her and Chamberlain's mother, Barbara, who were together at the carnival.

A car rounded the corner from the direction of the Post Office, sped up and swerved, aiming at her son, Kelley Karkos told Daigle.

The car hit Kyle Karkos, who landed on the sidewalk and didn't move, she said. She chased after the car, screaming. She memorized the plate number and described the driver.

Kyle Karkos told Daigle that a couple of days before he was hit by the car, he started getting threatening messages on his MySpace Web page from Michaud. The messages said that Michaud was going to put a “bullet in Kyle's head,” the affidavit said.

At the carnival that evening, according to the affidavit, Michaud waved Karkos and Chamberlain over, then argued with Karkos. Michaud threw a punch that led to a fight, which was stopped by carnival workers. A short time later, Karkos was hit by the car.

Barbara Chamberlain told police she, too, had been receiving harassing phone calls from Michaud.

Daigle interviewed Michaud at the carnival. According to the affidavit, Michaud told Daigle he hadn't been with Panzino, then changed his story and said he arrived at the carnival with Panzino, who then left. Michaud also said Panzino hadn't been in the fight, then changed his story to say Panzino had pulled Chamberlain off him during the fight, the affidavit states.

Michaud also told Daigle he didn't see the accident, but heard a “bang” and saw Karkos on the ground. Michaud said he left the carnival with his brother and went to Lisbon.

In the days since the carnival accident, the Sun Journal has attempted to talk to those involved. Michaud said he's been a victim of harassment from Karkos and Chamberlain since early high school and that it has nothing to do with the accident.

Karkos and his family declined to speak for this story, but talked to the Sun Journal a day after the hit-and-run.

And, seemingly caught in the middle, the Jellison family says that while the horrible accident that killed their son may have sparked ensuing harassment, it had nothing to do with the carnival incident. It's now evolved into clashing egos of immature, macho men, and their only wish is to get on with their lives.

Michaud told the Sun Journal last week he had known Karkos and Chamberlain from his days at Auburn Middle School, where they had been friends. When they got to high school, Karkos turned on him and, with Chamberlain, jumped him. That trend has continued since, he said. Two years ago, Karkos and Chamberlain tried to jump him at Walmart, Michaud said.

The fight the evening at the carnival had nothing to do with the 2006 crash or Kenny Jellison Jr., Michaud said. It was just a continuation of the behavior since high school.

He saw Chamberlain that evening, who snickered and texted on his cell phone, Michaud said. About 20 minutes later, while standing with his cousins, Michaud said he heard Karkos say, “Hey, bitch.” Karkos then punched him in the face from behind.

Chamberlain joined the fight, Michaud said.

“Trying to get them off of me was pretty near impossible,” he said.

Panzino pulled Chamberlain off after he jumped on Michaud's back, he said.

Michaud said he got threatening messages on social Web sites from them and their friends.

Since that night, he has been hiding from them, Michaud said.

He said he never made harassing phone calls to Chamberlain's mother. His cell phone didn't even work, he said, demonstrating.

He doesn't see any end to it.

“It'll never be over,” he said. “They'll keep coming. They'll keep coming either until I'm dead or the other way around. They're that dead set on destroying me.”

He said he doesn't know why it started.

A day after the carnival incident, Karkos told a Sun Journal reporter that he'd been “harassed” since the 2006 accident. “It started to slow down a little, but now this. It just adds fuel to the fire.”

A posting on his social Web site before the carnival fight alluded to the four-year-old crash, he said.

“I lost my best friend,” he said of the crash. “People don't understand that. I have to live with this for the rest of my life.”

Karkos said he's been trying to move past that accident ever since, but has endured taunts, vandalism, angry messages and threats.

He's engaged to be married and is raising two children with his fiancee.

His mother told the Sun Journal her son has been harassed in person and online almost continually since April 2006.

Not blaming the Jellison family for the harassment, Kelley Karkos points to friends of the teen who was killed, as well as strangers.

Through all of this, Ken and Linda Jellison say they wish they could get on with their lives.

Kenny Jr. inhabits their living room walls in portraits and collages and on a side table that serves as a shrine to their late son.

They said they recently turned on TV news to see a picture of the car in which their son was killed four years ago. The story was about the carnival incident. They didn't need to see that, they said.

“They brought Kenny Mark's name into it so they can have another pity party for Kyle Karkos,” Linda Jellison said.

They said they don't believe the recent incident had anything to do with the 2006 accident.

“Don't keep opening up this accident,” Linda Jellison said. “It's bad enough we have to live with it every single day.”

As far as the Jellisons know, Panzino never knew Kenny Jr. He didn't even go to the same high school. Nor was Michaud ever a friend of Kenny Jr.'s, as far as his family knows.

The ongoing feud since the accident doesn't involve them, Kenneth Jellison said. Some of the kids his son knew in school still clash with Karkos and his friends.

Three years ago, Kenny Jr.'s younger brother Travis was trapped in a car at the Auburn Mall when Karkos and Chamberlain and their friends surrounded the car. He called his dad, who showed up to confront the four teens.

The incident ended up in court.

Travis said he was threatened with a beating for testifying at Karkos' trial in 2007.

“There were kids that went on their side and kids that went on our side” after the crash, Travis Jellison said. “A lot of them were friends with both of them and just took sides.”

Asked if they could imagine a time when the harassment might stop, they shook their heads.

“It'll keep going” Travis said.

“They'll never leave us alone,” Linda Jellison said. “They'll always find something.”

None of it would be happening had it not been for that tragic crash four years ago, they said.

“But as far as those two kids having a fight (at the carnival), I believe it would still be happening,” Kenneth Jellison said. “This is just two macho groups of young men.”

cwilliams@sunjournal.com