The criminal case against a 17-year-old accused of killing a paddleboarder is no longer public.
Deven Young was charged with intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder in Knox County Juvenile Court in the death of 48-year-old Sunshine Stewart. Stewart was found dead July 3 after she failed to return from paddleboarding on Crawford Pond in Union.
A judge originally made the case public, releasing documents, including Young’s name and the charge he faces on July 18. Now the public cannot learn when any upcoming hearings are scheduled or what happens next in the case.
The case was made confidential about a week and a half ago, a Knox County Court clerk told the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday.
Young had his first court appearance July 18 and at the time was scheduled for a status conference for Friday. It’s unknown if that hearing will happen because the case is confidential.
The Office of the Maine Attorney General said it can’t comment further because the matter is no longer public.
Young’s attorney, Jeremey Pratt, declined to comment.
At Young’s first court appearance, a judge denied Pratt’s motion to close the hearing. Young denied the charge at the time and police affidavits in the case were sealed. The court released a petition for review of a detention, a document outlining why the person should continue to be held in custody, and a juvenile petition, which explains the charge Young faces and provides a brief outline of the facts alleged in the case.
The attorney general’s office asked for the case to be moved to adult court, where Young could face up to life in prison if convicted on the murder charge. That motion had not been ruled on as of July 21, according to the Penobscot Bay Pilot.
Young was ordered to continue to be detained at Long Creek Youth Correctional Facility in South Portland during the July 18 court appearance.
The Maine medical examiner’s office ruled that Stewart, of Tenants Harbor, died from strangulation and blunt force trauma, according to the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Stewart had gone out from Mic Mac Cove Campground around 6 p.m. July 2 for a solo paddleboard outing. But after she failed to return, authorities began searching for her early on the morning of July 3, when they found her body.
Friends remembered Stewart as a “strong” and “self-made” woman. She rehabbed her home in Tenants Harbor, where the community was shocked to learn of her death. Stewart also worked as a bartender, waitress, carpenter and fisherman.
She had planned to spend the summer at Mic Mac Cove Campground in a rented camper.
