The man who reached an eleventh-hour agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to killing another man in 2022 now wants to withdraw his plea and get a new trial.
James Howaniec, a defense attorney representing 24-year-old Damion Butterfield, told the Portland Press Herald that Justice MaryGay Kennedy made a “big, big mistake” when she instructed the jury that his client could be found guilty of murder even if he was an accomplice.
Butterfield was one of four men charged with the murder of 43-year-old Derald Coffin and the attempted murder of 29-year-old Annabelle Harnett in April 2022.
Coffin of West Bath was sitting in a parked vehicle on Woodford Street about 1 a.m. April 26, 2022, when he was approached by a group of people. An argument ensued, and Coffin and Harnett were shot.
The three other defendants, Thomas MacDonald, Jonathan Geisinger and Anthony Osborne, were charged with felony murder for their role in setting up the alleged plot to rob Coffin and Hartnett.
Days after the shooting, one of the defendants, MacDonald, entered the Westbrook Police Department, saying he wanted to confess to murder and told police Butterfield was the one who shot Coffin.
In December, Butterfield entered a guilty plea to murder, aggravated attempted murder, robbery and possessing a firearm as a prohibited person at the last minute just before the jury could deliver its verdict.
While prosecutors had largely argued that Butterfield was the gunman, they pressed the judge to instruct the jury on “accomplice liability theory.” Despite showing skepticism about the need for those instructions, Kennedy ruled the evening before closing arguments that the jury would be instructed on the theory, which Howaneic told Press Herald left him no time to challenge that theory. No alternative shooter was proposed.
Under Maine law, Butterfield can withdraw his guilty plea because he has not been sentenced.
A hearing will be held on April 25 on Butterfield’s motions to withdraw his plea and to request a mistrial, according to the Press Herald.
If a judge rejects those motions, he will be sentenced.