FAYETTE – The state charged a 14-year-old Fayette boy with murder Wednesday in connection with Saturday’s slaying of his neighbor, 14-year-old Marlee Johnston, also of Fayette.
Patrick Armstrong is the youngest person in the history of the state to be charged with murder, his attorney Walter McKee said Wednesday. McKee said he fears the state will try to prosecute the juvenile as an adult.
That would be a “terrible, terrible decision,” he said, because if Armstrong is tried as an adult and convicted, he would go to a Maine state prison with adults.
Police arrested Armstrong on Tuesday evening at his family’s home on Water Lily Lane, which is off Lovejoy Shores Drive where Johnston lived, about one-third of a mile away.
Johnston, an eighth-grade Winthrop Middle School student, had gone out to walk the family’s dogs early Saturday afternoon and was gone about 25 to 30 minutes before a neighbor called the family to let them know one of their Pekingese was at her door barking with its leash on.
The second Pekingese had stayed with Johnston’s body and continued to bark until Johnston’s brother, Alec, 17, found her body in a cove on Lovejoy Pond off Loon Watch Lane about 10 to 15 minutes after the neighbor’s call.
The Attorney General’s Office charged Armstrong with murder by juvenile petition Wednesday morning, Maine Deputy Attorney General Bill Stokes said Wednesday. Stokes declined to give details of the investigation.
McKee said he plans to deny the petition’s charge in court today.
Armstrong, who is being held at a juvenile detention center in Charleston, is scheduled to make an initial appearance in juvenile court at 8:30 a.m. at the 7th District Court in Augusta.
McKee has met with Patrick Armstrong’s parents, Kenneth and Betty Jean Armstrong, who retained him to defend their son, he said.
McKee said he expects the state will attempt to try the 14-year-old as an adult.
Armstrong has lived in Fayette all his life and has very supportive parents, who are shocked by what has happened, McKee said.
He and the boy’s parents plan to agree that the teenager stay in the state’s custody in Charleston for another week and have a full-fledged hearing next week on the case, he said.
Ted Johnston, Marlee’s father, declined comment Wednesday on the arrest of Armstrong, a neighbor. Johnston had also lived her entire life in Fayette.
Only nine houses and a street separate the two families in the quiet neighborhood that is located on a peninsula on Lovejoy Pond not far from the Readfield town line.
Marlee Johnston was remembered this week by family and friends as a “wonderful young lady.” Her family plans to celebrate her life at 3 p.m. today, at the Alfond Athletic Center at Kents Hill School. Gov. John Baldacci, who has ordered that flags in Fayette be flown at half-staff today in Marlee’s honor, plans to attend the service.
Town librarian Suzanne Rich, also of Fayette, said Wednesday that she knew both teenagers.
“It’s a shock, very much so,” Rich said of Johnston’s death and Armstrong’s being accused of killing her.
She said both families are very nice.
Although she hadn’t seen Armstrong, who is home-schooled, in a few years, she remembered him to be a “nice kid,” she said.
Armstrong’s parents were not available for comment Wednesday.
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