By Lisa Chmelecki,Staff Writer

AUBURN – In the end, the jurors didn’t care which defendant – David Lakin or Shaun Tuttle – was driving the Buick Century when it ran over 81-year-old James McManus.

After eight hours of deliberations, they found both men guilty of murder and kidnapping.

Lakin, 23, shook his head and started to cry as the jury foreman announced the verdicts in his case. His father, sister and girlfriend wept out loud.

Tuttle, 22, remained motionless awaiting his turn. His mother and stepfather, sitting in the same row as Lakin’s family, held onto each other as the court clerk asked the foreman to announce the verdict for the murder charge.

“Guilty,” the foreman declared, repeating the word seconds later for the charge of kidnapping.

Tuttle exhaled slowly as his mother buried her head in her husband’s chest and sobbed.

The men, both of Lewiston, could spend the rest of their lives in prison for what they did on the night of March 9, 2004.

“This was a brutal murder,” Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese said Tuesday after the trial ended.

“They ran over an 81-year-old man. It’s just animalistic, really,” she said.

Each man claimed he was an innocent bystander, too drunk to stop the other from taking McManus from his Blake Street apartment, driving him to a remote road in North Turner and running over his head with his own car.

But the jury didn’t buy their stories.

The panel of three men and nine women sided with state prosecutors, who argued that the two men worked together to target McManus for murder.

Motive unknown

Lakin and Tuttle met the night of the murder at Pub 33 in Lewiston. After several hours of heavy drinking, they entered McManus’ apartment hooded in similar sweatshirts.

A widower and former salesman, McManus was known to hang around young adults. He partied with them. He lent them money, and he let them borrow his car.

State prosecutors acknowledged during the weeklong trial in Androscoggin County Superior Court that the motive was unclear.

Instead, they focused their case on the evidence: Lakin and Tuttle’s DNA in McManus’ car and McManus’ blood all over each man’s clothes. Prosecutors told the jury that the two men decided from the beginning to blame each other in hopes it would get them both off.

“We’re very pleased that the jury saw through the defense and convicted them both,” Marchese said. “These two men worked together.”

McManus’ body was discovered the following day after Tuttle called 911 and directed police to Horton Street in Lewiston.

There, police found McManus stuffed in the trunk of his car, his head “crushed like an eggshell,” according to the state medical examiner.

Shocked

After the jury announced its verdicts, Lakin’s attorney, Kevin Joyce, asked that the jury be polled. A few jurors cried as they waited their turn to individually announce their verdict.

Tuttle folded his hands at his chest and lowered his head as each juror replied, “Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.”

Lakin continued to cry. Before leaving the courtroom, he turned around, looked at his sister and shook his head as she told him that she loved him.

According to Joyce, Lakin and his family were shocked by the verdict.

“They were very optimistic that it would be a different outcome,” he said.

Joyce described Lakin’s options for appealing the verdict as “limited,” but he said that he would review the transcript of the trial before making up his mind.

Tuttle’s attorney, Thomas Goodwin, was not available for comment after the trial and did not return a call to his Portland office later in the day. The jurors also declined to comment.

Justice Thomas E. Delahanty II ordered each man to undergo a psychological evaluation before the sentencing.

Marchese said she has not decided how much prison time she’ll request. Murder carries a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison and a maximum of life. Kidnapping carries a maximum of 40 years.

Lakin and Tuttle will be held in the Androscoggin County Jail without the option of bail until they are sentenced. Dates for their sentencing hearings had not been set.