AUBURN — A Lewiston man who shot a man twice in the head while they were driving in Lewiston two years ago was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison.
Justice Jennifer Archer sentenced Jerry Thibodeau, 38, to 25 years in prison on a manslaughter charge with all but 15 suspended.
Thibodeau had pled guilty to the charge of manslaughter in a deal that dropped a murder charge. As part of that deal, Thibodeau admitted to shooting 40-year-old Anthony Ayotte of Lewiston to death on Nov. 4, 2023.
“You killed another human being,” Archer said to Thibodeau in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Tuesday. “That’s on you.”
Thibodeau was sentenced to an additional five years on convictions for aggravated drug trafficking, illegal possession of a firearm and assault on a medical care professional.
According to court records, on the night of the killing, Thibodeau was driving through Lewiston in a pickup truck with Ayotte in the passenger seat and a woman described as Ayotte’s girlfriend in a back seat.
Ayotte’s girlfriend told police later that as Thibodeau drove down College Street, she heard a bang and saw a flash from the front seat.
Ayotte turned toward his girlfriend, according to the report, and said, “He shot me.”
The woman told police that she saw Thibodeau shoot Ayotte in the head a second time. She did not offer any motive for the killing.
Police said that after the shooting, Thibodeau eventually drove Ayotte to St. Mary’s Regional Hospital and dropped him off near the emergency room doors. Ayotte was treated at the hospital but died the following morning.
According to the affidavit, Thibodeau then went to a home on outer Sabattus Street, where he held local and state police at bay for five hours before surrendering. He was charged with murder.
During their investigation into the killing, police recovered a 9 mm Ruger handgun.
Thibodeau has been held at the Androscoggin County Jail since the morning he was arrested. Earlier this month, he accepted a deal by pleading guilty to manslaughter in the killing.
On Tuesday, he sat and stared straight ahead as a half-dozen of Ayotte’s family members stood and read statements to the court.
Ayotte’s sister, Samantha, described her brother as “funny, protective” and “always there when we needed him.” She said Ayotte was “silly and full of life.”
Another family member described the killing as “calculated and ruthless,” adding that Ayotte’s 4-year-old son “still asks for his daddy.”
Assistant Attorney General Mark Rucci argued that Thibodeau should receive the maximum allowable sentence for the manslaughter conviction.
In his arguments, Rucci pointed out that Thibodeau drove around Lewiston for a while before bringing Ayotte to a hospital. And then, Rucci said, he brought Ayotte to St. Mary’s instead of Central Maine Medical Center, where he could have received immediate trauma care.
Rucci also emphasized Thibodeau’s history of drug trafficking in his arguments for a maximum sentence.
Before the sentence was handed down, Thibodeau offered a brief apology to the family, acknowledging that his remorse “will never be enough.”
Had Thibodeau been convicted of murder, he would have faced a sentence of up to life in prison.
