AUBURN — A local man convicted of attempting to kill his girlfriend with a gun was sentenced Wednesday to serve 13 years of a 23-year sentence.
Germaine Page Androscoggin County Jail
Germaine Page, 43, was convicted at trial last month by a jury in Androscoggin County Superior Court on all six counts, including attempted murder.
That charge is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Before imposing Page’s sentence, Justice Harold Stewart II, who presided over the trial, denied the defendant a new trial.
Defense attorney James Howaniec had argued Page should be granted a new trial for several reasons, including pointing out a disparity between the number of people of color called for jury duty and the population of racial minorities in Androscoggin County. He also said that the criminal defense system established in Maine for representation of indigent defendants has deteriorated to the point that it puts defendants at a disadvantage during the judicial process.
Assistant District Attorney Katherine Bozeman argued caseloads for prosecutors have become equally onerous.
Stewart agreed that the “tremendous backlog” of unresolved criminal cases “seems to be crushing everyone.”
He said the lack of people of color in jury pools may be an issue, but it’s something that needs to be studied at greater length and likely can’t be remedied by the court, possibly by the Maine Legislature.
The victim of Page’s attempted murder charge, with whom he’d had a five-year relationship, gave a statement Wednesday about the trauma she suffered at Page’s hands.
She said he had become obsessed with her to the point where he was seeking to control her.
“You changed my life from victim to a badass survivor,” she said, explaining that the emotional and physical abuse to which Page subjected her ended up making her stronger, especially after Page’s conviction.
She said Page professed to have loved her. “Well, here’s a lesson that you should learn today if you learn nothing else: Love doesn’t hurt you; love doesn’t torment you; and love doesn’t try to kill you.”
She said she made it “perfectly clear” to Page that she didn’t want to be with him anymore, but he wouldn’t accept that.
“You screwed up the rest of your life because you couldn’t control mine,” she said.
She said she hoped he would contemplate his actions toward her while he serves his sentence.
“You are a monster,” she said, also calling him a “sick individual for your actions.”
She said she felt sorry for him for thinking the type of behavior in which he engaged would be OK.
“I’m no longer scared of you or your family,” she said.
Howaniec said his client has a “very low IQ” and he questions how much of the legal process Page has understood.
The bricklayer has a steady work history.
“I have found him to be a very mild mannered, soft-spoken individual,” Howaniec said.
His client was suicidal, not homicidal, when he was alone with the victim in their apartment living room on June 17, 2021, after she had returned from out of state where she had met with another man, Howaniec said.
“I think he was despondent,” Howaniec said.
Page, who did not testify at his trial, has maintained his innocence, Howaniec said.
On Wednesday, Page told the judge the victim was lying about her narrative of events last year.
“I’m sorry for what I did,” he said, but insisted he has “never tried to kill anybody in my whole life.”
He said he had tried to take his own life, not that of the victim.
Bozeman responded that had Page sought to kill himself, he would have done that, but instead he fired his gun directly at the victim.
She noted he refused to take responsibility for what he did, even after he was convicted.
According to police reports, Page had acquired a handgun a week prior to the attack on the victim.
Prosecutors said Page had told neighbors, shortly before the victim’s return, that he was going to “smoke that bitch” and then kill himself.
Police were called by neighbors to the Ninth Street area shortly before 10:30 p.m. on the night of the shooting for a report of a domestic disturbance. The victim told police that when she returned home that night, Page had accused her of cheating on him and had thrown her to the living room floor and stepped on her chest to hold her down.
He appeared to be trying to load his gun and was telling her she was going to “die tonight,” according to a police affidavit.
Page pointed the gun directly at her head and pulled the trigger, but it didn’t fire, prosecutors told the jury.
The woman was able to kick him in the groin and get to her feet, trying to reach the apartment door, but he blocked her exit. He struck her and she fell to the floor. He then kicked her twice in the face.
Page then pointed the gun toward her head and pulled the trigger. The gun fired a bullet that missed her, went through the couch and lodged in the wall, according to trial testimony.
The victim fled to the rear of the apartment and managed to escape through a window.
A police detective found a broken fingernail in the living room where the struggle apparently happened and located a spent shell casing for a .380-caliber gun on the living room floor under a dog’s bed, according to a police report. He found what appeared to be a bullet hole in the living room wall behind the couch and noticed torn fabric on the couch that appeared to have been damaged from a bullet striking it before hitting the wall.
Justice Stewart sentenced Page on the five lesser charges, including domestic threatening with a dangerous weapon and domestic reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, which he will serve at the same time as the 13 years.
After his release from prison, Page will be on probation for six years.
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