AUGUSTA – A 14-year-old Fayette boy accused of murdering a teenage neighbor will remain in state custody until at least next Thursday when a detention hearing is scheduled.
The judge approved the state’s request to impound the probable cause affidavit, which lays out early evidence against a suspect.
Patrick Armstrong made his first appearance in juvenile court Thursday with his lawyer, Walter McKee, beside him.
Armstrong is charged with murdering his 14-year-old neighbor, Marlee Johnston, Saturday near her home on Lovejoy Shores Drive.
Johnston left her home to walk her dogs in the quiet neighborhood on Lovejoy Pond and didn’t return. Family members found the eighth-grade Winthrop Middle School student’s body in the water a short time later, not far from the Johnston and Armstrong homes, which are about one-third of a mile apart.
Police arrested Armstrong on Tuesday night at his home on 9 Water Lily Lane.
Armstrong, wearing a long-sleeved green shirt inside-out with the tags showing, black pants and his hair mussed, sat quietly listening to Judge Charles LaVerdiere during Thursday’s proceedings. He spoke only once and nodded his head up and down when the judge asked him if he understood his rights.
McKee said he recommended that Armstrong turn his shirt inside-out because he did not think it was appropriate for the courtroom. An image on the front of the shirt showed a skull over two crossed wrenches with the saying “Built for speed.”
Armstrong’s parents, Kenneth and Betty Armstrong, sat shoulder-to-shoulder, both in black coats, in the courtroom behind him with a bevy of reporters and state police behind them.
A Maine State Police trooper sat on each side of the inner court railings, behind the defendant, McKee, Maine Deputy Attorney General Bill Stokes and Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson.
LaVerdiere told the teenager there has been some discussion of whether the state will try him as an adult, but now the case is still in juvenile court.
McKee waived the reading of the charge, and LaVerdiere said he would indicate “no answer” to the state’s petition charging the teen with murder and said they would deal with answers at a later date.
The judge said he had reviewed the state’s probable cause affidavit and, based on that information, he said Armstrong would be held in state custody until a detention hearing set for 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, at 7th District Court in Augusta.
After the proceeding ended, Kenneth Armstrong asked his son’s attorney if they could hug their son before he was taken back to Mountain View Youth Development Center in Charleston.
Armstrong walked over to his parents, where first his mother wrapped her arms around him and hugged him, then his father did the same.
“I love you,” his father said to him.
Betty Armstrong wiped tears from her eyes as her son left the courtroom.
After speaking briefly with state police, Kenneth Armstrong and his wife left the courtroom holding hands.
McKee said after the proceedings that his client and Johnston had grown up in the same neighborhood of the small town, but he didn’t know what their relationship was beyond that.
McKee said he was able to meet with the boy before the court appearance, and that the boy’s parents also had a chance to meet with him.
He said he plans to try to get Armstrong released to his parents’ custody next week during the detention hearing.
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