AUBURN — A Lewiston who admitted Friday that he fatally shot a Massachusetts man on Howe Street in Lewiston in 2022 is expected to be sentenced to 33 years in prison.
Mark J. Sinclair Androscoggin County Jail
Mark J. Sinclair, 30, pleaded guilty in Androscoggin County Superior Court to intentional or knowing murder, a crime punishable by 25 years to life.
Sinclair and prosecutors agreed on the 33-year sentence, which a judge is expected to impose at a hearing scheduled for the end of this month.
A video from city surveillance cameras that captured the July 17, 2022, shooting was shown in the courtroom Friday.
Sinclair, who has been held without bail at Androscoggin County Jail since his arrest, will remain behind bars until his sentencing.
The victim was identified as John Paquin, 20, of Worcester, Massachusetts.
A medical examiner said the cause of Paquin’s death was gunshot wounds and the manner of his death was homicide.
The video footage showed two people matching the descriptions of Sinclair and another man standing close to each other while talking to Paquin in the area of 32 Howe St. in Lewiston.
Paquin held his hands behind his back while looking at the two men.
Sinclair can be seen in the video shooting John Paquin with a handgun multiple times, police said.
After Paquin fell to the ground, face down, Sinclair was seen approaching him and shooting him again in the back of the head.
Sinclair and the other man then fled the scene toward 12 Howe St., where Sinclair had been staying.
A witness at the scene who said she’d heard gunshots gave police a description of Sinclair, who had been wearing a face mask, and the clothes he was wearing.
The witness said she saw Sinclair run into his apartment building at 12 Howe St. and emerge later without a face mask.
She told police Sinclair had changed into a T-shirt and walked back to the area of the shooting before turning and running in the direction of Sabattus Street.
At Sinclair’s apartment, police executed a search warrant and found a 9 mm Taurus handgun on the kitchen counter. Evidence technicians had recovered six 9 mm shell casings at the scene of the shooting.
In the apartment, police also found a pair of black jeans, a belt and a black sweatshirt in a bedroom. A bank card belonging to Sinclair was found in a pocket of the jeans.
In the bathroom, police found a cellphone in the toilet.
Sinclair told police he had spent most of that day at a home on Pierce Street when he hadn’t been jogging. He said he’d been informed of a shooting at 30 Howe St. while he was at the Pierce Street home.
But, a woman at the Pierce Street address told police she didn’t know anyone named Mark and that no one by that name had been at her home that day.
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