A Bangor man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday.
Richard Thorpe, 43, was indicted for intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder in the Sept. 25 death of 39-year-old Virginia Cookson.
He had his first court appearance Sept. 30, where the charge was read but he did not enter a plea, which is standard in a felony case.
Cookson died from strangulation in a homicide, the Maine medical examiner’s office ruled.
An indictment means the grand jury thought the evidence showed enough probable cause for the case to move toward a trial. Thorpe is scheduled for his next hearing Nov. 25.
Co-workers found Cookson’s body at a Larkin Street home after she didn’t show up for her shift at the Quality Inn for the first time ever. Her co-workers told police they believed Thorpe was abusive, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in court records.
Police tracked a cell phone they believed belonged to Thorpe. It was at the Larkin Street house multiple times during the evening of Sept. 24. It stayed at the house overnight until 4:23 a.m. on Sept. 25, according to the affidavit.
Cookson and Thorpe started dating in April and she had recently broken up with him, according to court records.
Thorpe has a lengthy criminal history dating back to May 1999, including felony charges that prohibit him from possessing guns, according to his 44-page criminal record obtained by the Bangor Daily News.
He most recently was charged with domestic violence aggravated assault, domestic violence assault, domestic violence terrorizing and illegal possession of a firearm on March 14, 2020. Thorpe pleaded guilty to domestic violence aggravated assault and domestic violence assault, while prosecutors dismissed the other two charges, his criminal record shows.
He was sentenced to nearly 60 months in prison on the first charge and 364 days on the second. He began his sentence at Maine Correctional Center on Jan. 27, 2021 and was released into the Supervised Community Confinement Program on Feb. 13. He was still considered to be in custody of the department of corrections at that time.
Thorpe was in the program until July 2, when he was fully released from custody of the Maine Department of Corrections, spokesperson Samuel Prawer said previously.
Anytime an inmate is released from custody sooner than their sentence is scheduled to end is because they earned sentence deductions known as “good time” as outlined in state law.
Thorpe was previously denied bail and is in the Penobscot County Jail.
