PORTLAND (AP) – A restaurant owner withdrew his pledge to share dinner receipts with Trial & Error, a group that supports a convicted murderer, after a protester came to a fund-raiser at his business.

Mac McCabe, chief executive officer of O’Naturals, said he did not realize how controversial hosting the event would be. The fund-raiser was sponsored by Trial & Error, a group which supports convicted murderer Dennis Dechaine.

Instead of giving 10 percent of the evening’s proceeds to the group, McCabe said he would make a personal donation to the group and one to a scholarship fund in honor or Sarah Cherry, the 12-year-old girl who disappeared in 1988 that Dechaine was convicted of murdering.

McCabe said he is not one of Dechaine’s supporters and may rethink how he decides what groups can use his restaurant.

“I have absolutely no opinion on that and I don’t have an informed opinion on the case,” McCabe said. “I just believe in freedom of speech and democracy.”

The decision pleased Michael DeLong, 49, a salesman from Portland who stood outside the restaurant Monday telling customers they were unwittingly supporting Dechaine’s defense.

“It upset me how it’s being presented by these people. Calling it a community night’ really gives it some legitimacy. People will be giving him money without even knowing about it,” DeLong said. “I think it’s pretty strange that they would be raising money for a convicted child killer.”

Dechaine was sentenced to life in prison in 1989. But interest in the case has grown after a book was published in giving new life to claims of his innocence. His supporters claim that he was already in custody at the time of Sarah Cherry’s death, and couldn’t have killed her.

Recent tests of Sarah Cherry’s bloodstained fingernails have found male DNA that is not Dechaine’s. His lawyer has filed a motion asking the state to compare it to DNA belonging to police investigators who handled the nails.

Trial & Error’s support of Dechaine has had an impact on the Cherry family, said Rev. Bob Dorr, the family’s pastor.

“They’ve gotten a little more aggressive,” Dorr said of Dechaine’s supporters. “The world is saying that Dennis is innocent. That really discounts the death of Sarah. The family is almost numb at this point, it’s been going on so long.”