BANGOR – A man who spent four years in prison for a crash that killed a Lewiston teenager nine years ago was supposed to be sentenced Thursday for another drunken-driving charge.
But things didn’t go as expected.
Instead of being sent to prison Thursday night, Daniel R. Asselin left the Bangor courtroom with a trial date for May.
Asselin, 37, of Bangor, was charged with operating under the influence and operating after revocation after a police officer pulled him over in that city last May.
He pleaded guilty to the charges earlier this month. But he withdrew his pleas Thursday when the judge rejected the state’s sentencing recommendation for being too lenient.
Assistant District Attorney Patrick Larson recommended a sentence of five years with all but two years suspended, followed by two years of probation.
Justice Jeffrey Hjelm decided probation wasn’t appropriate for Asselin, who has a long driving record, including the conviction connected to the death of 18-year-old Mark Blanchette in 1996.
Hjelm gave Asselin two options: Four years in prison with no probation, or a trial. Asselin chose the latter.
“Yeah, he withdrew his plea. But it’s smoke and mirrors,” said Daniel E. Knowlton, Mark Blanchette’s uncle. “It’s not going to help him at all. It may hurt him.”
Asselin could still get four years in prison if he is found guilty at a trial next month.
Blanchette’s family members who showed up in court Friday thought they were there to see Asselin sent away to prison one more time. Instead, a trial date was set and he remained free.
“It’s not closure, exactly” said Knowlton, who brought a scrapbook and a letter to the courthouse in hopes of persuading the judge to impose a harsh sentence. “But I’m satisfied he’s going to be looking at at least four years.”
Asselin was driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.21 in 1996 when his Ford Taurus ran over Blanchette on Webster Street in Lewiston, according to court records. Blanchette died a day after the crash after suffering extensive head and chest injuries.
Asselin was charged with manslaughter in connection with Blanchette’s death, but he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of aggravated drunken driving.
At the sentencing for that charge, his lawyer said the tragedy marked a turning point in his client’s fight against alcoholism. Asselin himself wept as he apologized to Blanchette’s family and acknowledged he shouldn’t have been driving at the time.
From the beginning, Blanchette’s family has remained unconvinced.
“Daniel Asselin has had over five years of freedom to make a better life for himself and he apparently has not learned from his past mistakes at all,” Knowlton wrote in a letter to the judge. “The knowledge of yet another OUI arrest of Daniel Asselin is not surprising to us at all. No matter what he says to you, today is proof that we could not believe him then and we don’t believe him now.”
Asselin moved to Bangor after being released from prison. Last May, a police officer in that city pulled him over after he allegedly squealed his tires on Hammond Street, drifted over the center line, then turned onto the I-95 ramp.
Police said he reeked of booze and failed field sobriety tests. He was later given a breath test, which showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.29, nearly four times the legal limit.
According to police records, Asselin was unable to show the officer a driver’s license when he was stopped, although he insisted he had one. During the stop, police learned that he was prohibited from driving because of the conviction stemming from Blanchette’s death.
The stop was the latest incident in Asselin’s long list of driving infractions.
He had been forbidden to drive for more than nine years before the 1996 incident because of numerous previous convictions, included speeding, driving while intoxicated, driving without a license and failure to appear in court.
At the hearing Thursday, Asselin faced a maximum of six years behind bars – 364 days for operating under the influence and five years for operating after revocation.
Despite Asselin’s previous driving record, the OUI was a misdemeanor because all but one of his convictions occurred more than 10 years ago.
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