Despite promises he’d be sent to Maine, a felon from Lewiston must face charges in the West.
Steven Coy was promised a move to Maine as part of a deal to get him and his cellmate to put an end to their hostage standoff at an Arizona prison in January.
But the 39-year-old felon from Lewiston isn’t going anywhere until he faces charges that he raped a kitchen worker and a prison guard during the 15-day seige, authorities in Arizona say. “He’s here, and he’s awaiting trial,” said Bill Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
Coy and his former cellmate, Ricky Wassenaar, are accused of orchestrating the longest prison hostage standoff in history.
On Jan. 18, authorities say, the two men took over the kitchen at Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis, where they were both serving life sentences.
Wassenaar shaved, changed into an officer’s uniform and gained entry into a prison guard tower, where he and Coy overpowered two prison guards.
Negotiators worked virtually around the clock to get the two officers out safely without storming the three-story tower and risking a bloody clash.
The standoff lasted until Feb. 1, when Coy and Wassenaar released their last captive, a female officer.
They agreed to surrender after authorities promised to transfer them to prisons outside Arizona. Wassenaar asked to go to Wisconsin. Coy asked to go to Maine to be closer to his family.
New charges
More than a month later, Coy’s relatives are still waiting for his return.
Some are angry because they believe authorities have reneged on the terms of their negotiations to send Coy to Maine within a week after his surrender.
“They did the right thing to save that guard’s life and they should stick by their word,” said Coy’s cousin, Robert Coy of Poland.
But officials in Arizona say they have every right to keep Coy in Arizona until he either pleads guilty or goes to trial for the 25 charges pressed against him and Wassenaar in connection with the standoff.
The charges facing Coy include escape in the first degree, kidnapping, dangerous or deadly assault by a prisoner, promoting prison contraband, sexual abuse and sex assault.
Investigators say Coy raped two women during the ordeal: a civilian kitchen worker and the female guard they were holding hostage.
He is being detained at the Maricopa County Jail in Arizona and he has complained to his relatives that it could be a year before he gets to Maine.
Coy left Lewiston for the West Coast when he was a young teen, after serving time at the Maine Youth Center.
The crimes that eventually landed him in prison with a 148-year sentence include robbing an 84-year-old nun at gunpoint, shooting a store clerk in the stomach and raping a 34-year-old shopkeeper in the back of her store.
‘Nothing to lose’
Robert Coy doesn’t deny that his cousin is a dangerous man who deserves to be locked up. But, he said, a promise is a promise.
According to Robert Coy, negotiators originally agreed to send Coy to the Supermax prison in Warren in early February, then to transfer him to federal prison in another state while he was on trial.
Robert Coy is worried that the delay may make his cousin angry enough to cause more problems.
“You have two men with nothing to lose,” he said. “Put it this way: I wouldn’t be surprised if something else happened.”
As part of the deal, Arizona prison officials agreed to take one of Maine’s violent sexual predators in exchange for accepting Coy.
Officials in Maine don’t seem too concerned about the delay.
“We’re just waiting to hear from Arizona,” said Jeffrey Merrill, warden of the Maine State Prison.
“It’s up to them to initiate it,” added Denise Lord, the associate commissioner of the Department of Corrections.
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