ROCKLAND — Maine State Prison inmate Richard Stahursky pleaded guilty to murder in the stabbing death of a fellow prisoner as a jury was being selected Monday for his trial.

Stahursky, 35, also known as Richard Clements, admitted stabbing Micah Boland 87 times with a homemade knife in February 2014. After the attack, Stahursky appeared before a corrections officer holding the weapon in his bloody hands, and told her he needed to be handcuffed, according to an affidavit filed in Knox County Superior Court.

Boland, 37, was a convicted sex offender serving 22 years for gross sexual assault against a 4-year-old victim.

Stahursky had appeared in January before Justice Daniel Billings with his attorney, Philip Cohen, to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

Stahursky is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 10. The minimum sentence for murder is 25 years.

Cohen said Stahursky will address the court at his sentencing, focusing on his dissatisfaction with how the prison is managed.

Stahursky was already serving multiple sentences for elevated aggravated assault and aggravated assault for attacking other inmates with makeshift knives. He was also convicted of arson and assaulting an officer. His earliest possible release date was November 2032, according to the Department of Corrections website.

Stahursky underwent a mental health evaluation ordered by the court in November 2014. Cohen, in an acknowledgment of rights letter to the court, said he believes Stahursky has the mental capability to understand what rights he is giving up in his guilty plea.

Cohen was assigned to represent Stahursky in August after Stahursky said his previous court-appointed counsel, Christopher MacLean, was trying to kill him and was not allowing him to represent himself. Cohen said in November that Stahursky had agreed not to represent himself.

Stahursky was indicted in April 2014 by the Knox County grand jury for intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder, aggravated attempted murder and trafficking in prison contraband.

According to the indictment, Stahursky also intended to kill a corrections officer on the same day he murdered Boland. He left his cell and walked into the day room of the prison holding a homemade knife with the officer’s name on it.

Stahursky told authorities that he attacked Boland because he thought the other man had made up accusations that got Stahursky fired from his job as a hallway worker. He was accused of passing items from pod to pod, he told Maine State Police Detective Jason Andrews.

“I am guilty of this, yeah, absolutely,” Stahursky told police. He said he did not intend to kill Boland, but said, “I get stupid sometimes when I have a knife in my hand.”

Stahursky said he was prescribed a mood stabilizer but was not taking it.

During a search of Stahursky’s cell, investigators found a list with five names on it, including Boland’s. Boland’s name had been scratched out.

Juliette Laaka can be contacted at 594-4401 ext. 118 or at:

jlaaka@villagesoup.com