Law enforcement had previously responded to the home of the teenager accused of killing a paddleboarder in the midcoast last summer, documents that were unsealed Thursday reveal.
The Waldo County Sheriff’s Office responded to the home of Deven Young, now 18, on Jan. 15, 2023, for an alleged assault that happened earlier that month against the then-15 year old, the report said.
The police report sheds new light on the life of the teenager prior to his alleged killing of 48-year-old Sunshine Stewart. Little information about Young was previously publicly available as he was a minor at the time of Stewart’s death.
The Bangor Daily News obtained the police report after the Midcoast Villager sued the sheriff’s office for documents connected to Young and his home. A judge ordered the release Dec. 30.
Young was 17 when he was charged as a juvenile with intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder in Knox County Juvenile Court in the death of Stewart. His case was sealed in August and can be made public if he is charged as an adult.
Stewart was found dead July 3 after she failed to return from paddleboarding on Crawford Pond in Union.
The sheriff’s deputy interviewed at least two people during the Jan. 25, 2023, visit to Young’s Frankfort home. The names of those people are redacted.
Those interviews revealed that Young had spent time at Northern Light Acadia Hospital, a psychiatric facility, and that he had previously beaten a woman to the point that her face “swelled up” and she was “black and blue,” the report said.
The woman, who was at the home, showed police a photo of her prior injuries.
Police responded to Young’s home because he showed up to school with a black eye, the report said.
The people describe Young as a teenager who had “bad spells” and was “crazy,” if he did not have his medication, the report said. He has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and “defiance disorder,” a person told police.
The woman said that they “have done everything that they can to deal with Deven’s disorder,” the report said.
An unnamed person gave Young the black eye after they slapped Young and poked him in the eye, the report said. The person and Young were arguing because Young wanted to go inside and the person wanted help doing work outside.
The person said Young was “right in his face swearing,” and that he back handed the teenager “to get through to him and to get away from him.”
The woman who said Young beat her said that she and another person, whose name was redacted, do not beat Young, and that the teenager said the slap was his fault because he was in the person’s face.
Young had punched holes in every room of the family’s house, the report said.
A caseworker from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services had been assigned to Young before that January 2023 visit, the report said.
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. on July 2 for a solo paddleboard outing. Authorities began searching for her early on the morning of July 3 after she failed to return. They then 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.
In July, Young was ordered to continue to be detained at Long Creek Youth Correctional Facility in South Portland during his latest public court appearance.
