NORWAY – The girlfriend of David J. Mair left Stephens Memorial Hospital on Friday after an apparent drug overdose Thursday when Mair was convicted of attacking a Fryeburg doctor in 2004.

Brenda Simpson of Portland was at the Oxford County Jail on Friday to visit Mair, who was convicted of aggravated assault on Dr. Mary Nash and burglarizing her home on Sept. 15, 2004.

“I just left the hospital,” she said to jail officials, before being escorted to visit Mair while a friend waited for her.

Simpson was found unconscious Thursday in a van in the courthouse parking lot near the jail, according to Lt. Jim Miclon of the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office. A friend of Simpson’s in the van with her said the woman had “taken a large quantity of pills” and had consumed alcohol, Miclon said. There was an empty pill bottle in the van.

Mair, who had been dating Simpson since June 2004, faces up to 20 years in prison and will be sentenced March 14. The former resident of Portland and Fryeburg was acquitted of two more serious felonies, attempted murder and elevated aggravated assault.

Following the Thursday morning verdict, Simpson sat sobbing outside the courtroom with friends. She had been in court all week for the trial, which started Monday, and testified for the defense on Tuesday.

– Kerri Peopoy