The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday upheld the sentence for a Portland man who killed his girlfriend in Acadia National Park.
In a 14-page decision, the high court rejected 38-year-old Raymond Lester’s arguments that the court’s jury instructions weighed too heavily in favor of the state and that it erred in sentencing him to 48 years.
Lester was found guilty in November 2023 of killing 35-year-old Nicole Mokeme of South Portland. He had been in a three-year relationship with Mokeme, an activist who was organizing a retreat for Black Mainers at the Schoodic Education and Research Center campus in Winter Harbor when she died.
Lester ran her down with a black BMW X3 SUV sometime between the night of June 18 and the early morning of June 19, 2022. Mokeme’s body was found on a walking path, and tire tracks went up from the road to the trees and bushes where she was found.
Before her death, attendants at the retreat told authorities that Lester had screamed at Mokeme, was drinking and had made a gesture with his hand and arm like firing a gun.
Lester was arrested nearly a month later in Mexico.
It was the first homicide in Acadia National Park in 35 years.
He is currently incarcerated at the Maine State Prison in Warren, where he won’t be eligible for release until Nov. 28, 2063, at the earliest, according to the Maine Department of Corrections.
