LIVERMORE FALLS – An attorney for a brain-damaged man sentenced to 40 years in prison for raping an elderly Livermore Falls woman has appealed the sentence to the state’s highest court.
Kerry Gray’s attorney, David Sanders, and state prosecutor Andrew Robinson presented their oral arguments to justices on Jan. 25 at the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Augusta.
Sanders said Tuesday that their argument is that Gray received the most years he could possibly get, and they thought Justice Ellen Gorman relied too much on the circumstances in the case during sentencing and understated the mitigating factor of Gray’s brain damage. He said she didn’t take into consideration whether or not the incident would have happened if there was no brain injury.
Robinson said Tuesday that his argument is that the judge made the appropriate sentence and based on the facts she received, it was well within her discretion. He said the sentence should not be overturned.
The court has taken the case under advisement and will issue a decision in the future.
Gray, 42, was 40 when he pleaded guilty to gross sexual assault, attempted murder and arson and was sentenced June 25, 2004, by Gorman at Androscoggin County Superior Court in Auburn.
Gray raped a 76-year-old woman, whom he had known most of his life. He punched her repeatedly and slashed her throat several times during the attack March 11, 2003, in her Livermore Falls home. The tendons in her left hand were severed as she fought for her life.
Gray left the home after he cut the phone lines, poured gasoline in sections of the home and started a fire to create a diversion and mask the crime.
The woman survived but spent weeks in the hospital and more than a year later at Gray’s sentencing was still trying to recover.
Besides the 40 years for the charge of gross sexual assault with no chance of parole, Gorman also sentenced Gray to concurrent terms of 20 years for arson and 17 years for attempted murder.
Gray, a previously convicted sex offender, is brain-damaged from an automobile accident more than 20 years ago. He is serving his sentence at a state prison in Warren.
Sanders had argued during sentencing that his client should enter a 24-hour, seven-day constant one-on-one supervised program rather than the Department of Corrections. He said the government failed his client by not providing a program to protect him and society.
Gorman said at the time that she did not agree with Sanders that the system failed his client. She said it was impossible to ignore Gray’s deficits and that child abuse, substance abuse and the accident may have taken pieces of his brain, but a psychologist testified that Gray’s impulse judgment control was only impaired.
Gorman said Gray’s crimes, which began at 20 with a burglary, continually became worse, going on to sexually abusing children and then the elderly woman.
The woman survived the attack entirely by her own will, but in the effort she lost the right to live independently and live without fear, Gorman had said.
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