WARREN – Brandon Thongsavanh has returned to the Maine State Prison to await his second trial.

The 21-year-old murder defendant flew from Arizona to Maine on Thursday. After stopping briefly at the Cumberland County Jail in Portland, where inmates arriving from other states are booked and processed, he was taken to the state’s maximum-security prison in Warren.

It remains uncertain whether he will remain there or be transferred to the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.

“What needs to happen now is his attorney needs to meet with him to determine whether he’ll contest my request for the transfer,” said Capt. John Lebel, administrator of the Androscoggin County Jail.

Thongsavanh has been serving a 58-year sentence in an Arizona state prison for the March 2002 murder of Bates College senior Morgan McDuffee.

He was sent to Arizona in May 2004 after Maine agreed to exchange one of its high-risk prisoners for an Arizona inmate involved in a 15-day hostage standoff at a prison there.

The plan was to keep Thongsavanh in Arizona until the completion of his sentence.

That changed in October when the Maine Supreme Judicial Court overturned his conviction and granted him a new trial.

The high court justices’ decision was based on their belief that a profane reference to Jesus on Thongsavanh’s shirt, which was mentioned during his first trial, was so offensive that jurors might not have been able to be impartial after hearing about it.

Thongsavanh’s second trial is tentatively scheduled for April.

Since he is now considered a pre-trial inmate, he technically belongs at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.

However, shortly after his conviction was overturned, local jail officials filed a petition in court arguing that the county jail isn’t equipped to house Thongsavanh given his violent history as an inmate.

Thongsavanh spent about a year at the Maine State Prison before being transferred to Arizona.

During that time, he was believed to have been the “enforcer” for a small gang of inmates, and he was involved in an incident in which another inmate’s throat was slashed, according to affidavits written by Lebel and Androscoggin County Sheriff Ronald Gagnon.

If Thongsavanh tells his lawyer, William Masselli, that he wants to return to the jail, the issue will be presented to Superior Court Justice Ellen Gorman.

“If he contests it, we’ll have a hearing,” Lebel said. “If he doesn’t, he’ll stay right where he’s at.”

Maine has not sent another inmate to Arizona to replace Thongsavanh. Prison officials could not be reached Monday, so it remains uncertain whether they will send someone else or wait for the outcome of Thongsavanh’s second trial.