Luc Tieman’s lone criminal conviction stems from an incident about two years ago when he was arrested for causing more than $2,000 worth of damage to a Winslow gun shop’s trailer with a hatchet late at night, according to court documents obtained Friday by the Morning Sentinel.
Tieman, who had been drinking alcohol, later explained to police at the time that he had been in an argument with his wife — Valerie Tieman, whom he had married about three months prior — and he was outside during the early morning hours “because he was upset.”
Two years later, Luc Tieman, 32, is charged with murdering his wife after allegedly concocting a story that she disappeared from a store parking lot and later lying to police, claiming that she overdosed on heroin. Authorities on Tuesday recovered Valerie Tieman’s body from the woods near where the couple lived; an autopsy showed she died from two gunshot wounds to the head.
A statewide criminal records check on Wednesday showed that Luc Tieman’s single criminal conviction in Maine is related to an incident on Sept. 5, 2014, in Winslow. The incident happened nearly three months after Luc and Valerie had married, which was June 8, 2014, according to her Facebook page.
It was a Friday night just before midnight when Winslow police responded to a report that a man was “banging on something” near Jim’s Gun Shop off Bay Street, according to an affidavit filed in Kennebec County Superior Court. Officer Bradley Hubert and Sgt. Haley Fleming found a blue sport utility vehicle parked nearby and walked over to the gun shop’s enclosed trailer, where they heard banging and noticed it was damaged.
They found a man wearing khaki cargo-style pants and a black shirt. The man took off running and got away from both officers. A police dog and sheriff’s deputy also arrived to look for the man. Later, as police took processing notes on the damaged trailer and the blue SUV, they noticed a man walking south on Bay Street and recognized him as the suspect.
Police asked him his name; it was Luc Tieman. He was the secondary registered owner of the blue SUV.
Tieman, police said, was “full of dirt and very sweaty,” and “also had the scent of intoxicating beverages emitting from his breath.”
When officers asked him what he was doing, Tieman “stated that he had been having an argument with his wife and that he was out because he was upset.”
Police said they knew Tieman had damaged the gun shop trailer; Tieman admitted he had parked his blue SUV nearby but was noncommittal on the accusation of property damage.
Sgt. Haley Fleming then found a hatchet on top of the trailer and a hatchet sheath was found in the front seat of Tieman’s SUV. Tieman was arrested and taken to the police department, where he spoke with Detective Ron McGowen and “gave a full confession as to the events of how he parked his vehicle and damaged the trailer.”
Tieman also mentioned that he had taken off his black T-shirt and “left it in the cemetery that he had stopped in.”
He pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and was sentenced March 10, 2015, to 48 hours in jail and ordered to pay $100 in restitution.
His address in court documents at the time was listed as 628 Norridgewock Road, Fairfield, the home of his parents, where he and Valerie Tieman had been living until recently and where Valerie’s body was found this week.
Superior Court records also show Tieman received a summons Dec. 22, 2015, for attaching false plates to a 1997 Buick.
Tieman, during his initial appearance on the murder charge Friday in Skowhegan, also pleaded not guilty to a charge of operating after his license was suspended Jan. 26 in Waterville. That case has been postponed to Jan. 5, 2017, at Waterville District Court.
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