By Kerri Pepoy,Staff Writer

PARIS – A Superior Court judge on Tuesday sentenced David J. Mair to 18 years in state prison for the September 2004 attack on a Fryeburg family practitioner that left her with severe injuries and unable to work for three months.

Justice Robert Crowley said Mair showed no remorse for the attack on Dr. Mary Nash that broke her nose and fingers. Crowley said Mair committed the assault to “terrify, humiliate, control and dominate” Nash after he burglarized her Main Street home on Sept. 15, 2004.

Mair, 31, most recently of Portland, was convicted last January of aggravated assault and burglary, Class B felonies that carry a maximum term of 10 years. He was acquitted of the more serious felony charges of attempted murder and elevated aggravated assault.

Nash, who is in her early 60s, briefly addressed the court before Crowley announced the sentence. She said her memory of the attack is still vivid.

“It has been a long 18 months since that horrible morning,” she said. “It comes to me every day of my life.

“I hope this man never has the chance to do this to another person.”

Crowley cited Mair’s “egregiously bad” criminal record as a reason for the lengthy sentence. “This individual has served the vast majority of his adult life in custody,” he said.

Crowley also said Mair was a serious threat to public safety and showed no indication he could be rehabilitated. “It’s difficult to anticipate that someone will be rehabilitated when he won’t show knowledge of what he needs to be rehabilitated from,” he said.

Mair will serve 10 years for the burglary charge and eight years plus two years’ probation for the aggravated assault charge.

Shackled and handcuffed, his eyes appeared to well with tears after the sentence was read. He turned and looked behind him. His girlfriend, Brenda Simpson of Portland, had been sitting in the back of the courtroom but left shortly before the sentence was read, visibly upset.

Simpson was wearing a gold band on her left ring finger. John Jenness, Mair’s court-appointed attorney, said the couple was recently engaged.

Nash told reporters she believed the sentence was fair. “The main feeling is relief it’s over and sorrow it happened,” she said.

Mair attacked Nash one morning after she returned from a local health club, surprising him as he burglarized her home. He repeatedly struck Nash with his fists, a flashlight and a wrench as he shouted obscenities at her. He also pulled out a knife and threatened to kill her.

When Mair momentarily turned away, she managed to escape to a neighbor’s house and called police.

The attack left Nash with a broken nose, two shattered fingers, bodily bruises and lacerations to her head and ear that required stitches.

Mair’s DNA was found on a rubber band recovered from the crime scene. The rubber band was partially wrapped around a towel Mair left when he fled. He was arrested last May.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph O’Connor had asked for consecutive sentences. He said Mair has been incarcerated since age 14 for all but three years.

Mair’s criminal record includes a 1992 conviction of assault and battery in Massachusetts, a 1995 robbery conviction in Maine, and a 2001 conviction in Maine of threatening with a dangerous weapon.