AUGUSTA — Sentencing was delayed Wednesday for a man who broke into the home of a 73-year-old Waterville woman and raped her with the judge expressing concern that a 20-year cap on prison time proposed in a plea agreement might not be good enough to protect the public.
Mark D. Halle, 33, pleaded guilty in August to charges of gross sexual assault, burglary and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, all of which occurred Feb. 7, 2016, in Waterville.
Around 4 a.m. that day, Halle entered the home of the woman — a neighbor in the same mobile home park where he was living with his sister — by removing an air conditioner and climbing through her living room window. The victim woke after hearing a crashing sound she thought was probably just her cat and said she got out of bed to see a figure standing inside her home, who pointed a gun —which police later determined to be a pellet gun they found in the area — at her.
The victim said in court Wednesday that Halle put a pillow case over her head, sexually assaulted her, sodomized her with the pellet gun, took her to her tub where he washed her, and before he left said he knew her family and would kill them and her if she reported the crime. The Kennebec Journal does not identify victims of sexual assaults.
She asked in court Wednesday that he be given the maximum sentence, “so he’ll never be able to do the terrible things he did to me to others.”
She said she pleaded with him after he lifted her onto her bed and started to rape her to stop, saying her husband had died 16 years ago and she hadn’t been with anyone since.
Halle responded to that by saying, “You’ll enjoy this then,” according to Deputy District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh.
Halle, with short hair and wearing a green jail uniform, rose and, facing the judge, said, “There is no excuse for what I’ve done. I’d like to say I’m very sorry.”
The gross sexual assault charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.
Justice Michaela Murphy, following a more than hour-long recess, said she was “very concerned about the 20-year period of incarceration and whether it is sufficient to protect the public.” She said facts were disclosed in a victim impact statement that were not presented previously “that make the court very concerned about public safety in this matter.”
She noted the state and Halle’s attorney, Pamela Ames, had proposed a plea agreement which would cap the maximum period of incarceration at 20 years.
She said a psychological evaluation of Halle should be done before sentencing to get a professional opinion of whether Halle would likely present a risk to public safety upon his release after 20 years. She said depending on those findings, the case could proceed under the plea agreement as proposed or could still go to trial.
She said sentencing would thus be delayed until Nov. 10.
Halle has no previous criminal record. Ames said Halle “has had a miserable life” that included abuse as a child, and that Halle has been an alcoholic since he was 13 and has only an eighth-grade education. She also said Halle is bipolar and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder due to his childhood abuse, but couldn’t fill prescriptions for his medications because he had no money, no insurance and no job.
She said he broke into the woman’s home seeking money after he’d been drinking with a friend all night, then going to his sister’s, which is near the victim’s home, and drinking all her beer and being left wanting more. She said he broke into the victim’s house, where he had once shoveled snow for $10, seeking money, and he asked where the victim’s purse was, but she refused to answer.
“He broke in for money,” Ames said. “She didn’t give him money and it went bad from there.”
She said he has taken responsibility for the crime and asked the state to make a plea offer rather than forcing the matter to trial.
The victim, however, said Halle may have been intoxicated but knew what he was doing that early morning.
“I believe he knows what he broke into my home to do,” she said. “It was to rape me.”
Cavanaugh said Halle, when first confronted by police, denied any involvement multiple times, only admitting to what happened bit by bit as they presented him with more evidence and more questions.
After the February attack, Waterville police Chief Joe Massey cited the case as an example of why people should arm themselves. “In cases like this, you wish the homeowner had a weapon and was capable of defending themselves,” he said at the time, drawing both praise and criticism.
The victim’s son said the case made his mother, who believes in non-violence, “an inadvertent celebrity on social media,” roping her into a gun control debate with some commenters on social media sites arguing that if she’d had a gun in her home, the incident wouldn’t have happened. He also noted many in the community rallied around her.
About a dozen supporters joined the victim at the Capital Judicial Center for Wednesday’s hearing.
The victim said she was left with bites and bruises after the attack, and she thought she might have had a broken arm, though it turned out not to be.
She said she prayed to Jesus while Halle was assaulting her and called 911 after he left. She said she was at the hospital for eight hours for a forensic examination.
“His death threats didn’t deter me from doing what I needed to do, to put him away where he belongs,” she said.
She said she is in counseling for sexual assault and hopes to help anyone who has been sexually assaulted.
Keith Edwards — 621-5647
Twitter: @kedwardskj
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