AUGUSTA – A mother started weeping outside the courthouse Thursday as family members gathered around her. Her grandson, Chad Flagg, put his arm around Pauline Dion of Jay to comfort her.

Dion’s daughter, Doreen Richard, also hugged her sobbing mother and told her to breathe several times. Dion’s husband, Alex Dion, who stood nearby, was comforted by other family members as he wiped tears from his eyes with a handkerchief.

The family had just left Kennebec County Superior Court, where Thomas Mitchell Jr., 49, the man accused of killing their daughter, mother and sister, Judy Flagg, of Fayette in January 1983, entered no plea to the murder charge.

Flagg was 23 years old when she was discovered stabbed to death at her Watson Heights Road home.

The house was previously owned by Mitchell’s father.

In January 1983, though, it was the home that she shared with husband, Ted Flagg, and their son, Chad. He was 1 at the time and home with his mother when she was slain.

Flagg found his wife’s body and his son nearby after returning home from working a double shift late on Jan. 6, 1983.

Mitchell, already incarcerated at the Maine State Prison in Warren, stood with his feet chained together beside his attorney, Jim Strong, as he confirmed who he was to Justice Nancy Mills during the brief arraignment proceeding inside the courtroom.

Mitchell was indicted by a Kennebec County grand jury on Sept. 8 on the charge of intentional or knowing murder in the 23-year-old case.

Prior to his turn before Mills, Mitchell sat beside his lawyer wearing blue jeans, a light blue shirt and sneakers and took his glasses out of his pocket and put them on to read a sheet of paper Strong had given him.

The Flagg and Dion family whispered quietly before the proceedings began as they filled two rows in the courtroom with a state victim’s advocate sitting behind them.

Chad Flagg, who was an honor student throughout his Livermore Falls High School years and now a physical therapist in southern Maine, sat between his grandparents and his stepmother, Bertha Flagg and his father.

They were quiet as Mitchell faced the judge in the short session.

Mitchell, serving 15 years of a 20-year sentence for rape, with three years probation, had lived in South Portland prior to his incarceration and is scheduled to be released from prison in February 2007.

At some point, Mitchell will be back in court to enter a plea, and there will be a bail hearing on the murder charge prior to his release, Maine Deputy Attorney General William Stokes said.

Stokes said he presented Strong, who has been retained to represent Mitchell, with about 1,200 pages of material to review.

“I know very little at this point,” Stone said. “I just received a very copious discovery. … It’s been under investigation for 23 years. I’ll be doing a lot of reading.”

David Dion, Flagg’s brother and a family spokesman, said the family is thankful for the Maine State Police’s diligence on the case.

“It’s been 23 years. We all seek closure in this. It has been faith that has carried us through,” Dion said.

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