SOUTH PARIS — Prosecutors have dropped a charge of attempted murder against a West Paris man citing a lack of evidence to move forward in the case.
John Crouch III was charged in February in the shooting of Vincent Andrew Choppin Jr., 19, of Dorchester, Massachusetts.
Choppin died a month later from gunshot wounds after an apparently unrelated shooting in Massachusetts. On March 23, Choppin was found outside a building in Mattapan, Massachusetts, with multiple gunshot wounds and pronounced dead at a hospital, according to the Boston Globe.
Crouch’s girlfriend, Angelique Henderson, 39, of 433 Oxford St. in South Paris had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy, but was never charged.
Prosecutors said this week that the complaint against Crouch that had been filed in Oxford County Superior Court was dismissed last month for insufficient evidence. The case file has since been sealed by the clerk’s office.
Crouch was never indicted by a grand jury; an indictment on a felony charge is needed for a case to go to trial. The charge of attempted murder is a Class A felony, punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Police said in court papers that Crouch had allegedly shot Choppin in the chest in late January in a camper parked in West Paris, after they found bloody footprints leading from Crouch’s camper at 5 Jackson Crossing Road into the woods.
Police said Crouch had then chased a wounded Choppin through the woods, down a steep embankment and through a gravel pit to a tall wooden fence that Choppin climbed before calling 911 from the Midwest Price Co. chip mill, telling a dispatcher he’d been shot and was “going to die.”
He was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston for treatment.
Crouch had been staying with Henderson in his father’s camper, which police searched and found blood in the sleeping area. They also found just inside the door a buckshot shell they said was consistent with the round that wounded Choppin.
Police later found and detained Crouch and Henderson in Bethel.
Crouch told police during an interview that he ran from authorities because “he thought he had a warrant.”
Choppin was released from the hospital the same week he was treated. An Oxford County Sheriff’s Office deputy said Choppin didn’t cooperate during interviews with authorities.
Investigators found two large bags of narcotics, including fentanyl and crack cocaine, along a path in the woods where Choppin’s bloody footprints were seen.
After Choppin’s death, defense attorney Jeffrey B. Wilson filed a motion to amend bail saying there were “serious concerns about the state’s ability to prove the case,” mainly that Choppin, who left Maine after the shooting for Massachusetts, refused to cooperate with police. The motion didn’t specifically cite Choppin’s death as a reason for the bail reduction.
A judge reduced bail from $150,000 to $5,000.
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