AUGUSTA — For being a no-show at the trial of Corey W. Hall, Nicole Isbell got arrested and spent the weekend in jail.

Isbell, 21, of Augusta and Oakland, was picked up late last week on a charge of failure to appear as a state witness after she allegedly defied a subpoena to appear Thursday in Kennebec County Superior Court.

According to Paul Stewart, a law enforcement officer with the Kennebec/Somerset County District Attorney’s Office, Isbell had called the office a day before the trial to say “that she was not going to appear.”

Hall, 29, of Oakland, was set for a jury trial on charges of domestic-violence assault and obstructing a report of a crime. Isbell was named as the victim of the two offenses and was subpoenaed as a witness.

When she failed to turn up by 11 a.m., the judge dismissed charges against Hall and issued an arrest warrant for Isbell.

According to information filed with the court from the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Kate Marshall in Hall’s court file, Hall and Isbell were living in Oakland on March 22 when their dogs started fighting.

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Marshall said Hall became angry, then violent when Isbell tried to intervene, shoving her to the floor. He later took Isbell’s phone so she had to sneak calls to 911.

District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said Isbell was on deferred disposition on a separate theft conviction, and failing to comply with the subpoena would result in a violation of those conditions.

Today, Isbell was sentenced to two days in jail and fined $200 on the theft conviction, which stemmed from an incident Dec. 24 at Kohl’s in Augusta. Stephen Bourget, the attorney who represented her today, said Isbell would be given credit for the weekend in jail.

Isbell is to be arraigned in September on the charge of failing to comply with a subpoena.

Hall also was charged with a separate count of cruelty to animals in connection with the dog incident in Oakland. The state dismissed that charge before jury selection.

Hall’s attorney, Darrick Banda, said that charge was filed under the wrong statute. Banda said that statute relates to depriving an animal of care or sustenance, and investigators said Hall had struck a dog.

Betty Adams — 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com


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