AUBURN — The testimony of a 12-year-old girl helped convince a judge Monday that a 28-year-old man violated the terms of his probation for a brutal attack with an ice chopper on a stranger in Lewiston a decade ago.

Luke Blair, 28, of Readfield could serve up to eight years and eight months of the suspended sentence for the assault he committed in 2007. He had served roughly three years of the original 12-year sentence for the elevated aggravated assault charge and had been free on probation for six years.

Androscoggin County Superior Court Justice Thomas E. Delahanty II found that Blair had committed domestic violence assault and domestic violence criminal threatening in Readfield when he assaulted his then-girlfriend on Dec. 28, 2017. And on Jan. 4, Blair had committed the crime of terrorizing when he spoke with a Lewiston woman who answered the phone of his then-girlfriend’s father. Blair told the woman he planned to come to her home and shoot out the windows.

While the judge found a preponderance of evidence Blair had committed the conduct charged by prosecutors in the Dec. 28 and Jan. 4 incidents for the purposes of probation violations, a higher standard for criminal convictions in those charges – beyond a reasonable doubt – will be necessary to convict Blair of those crimes.

Blair had admitted to violating probation on charges of aggravated criminal trespass, criminal mischief, refusing to submit to arrest and assault on an officer stemming from a dramatic incident on Jan. 5 in Lewiston captured on video by a Sun Journal photographer.

The 12-year-old daughter of Blair’s then-girlfriend testified Monday that she had witnessed Blair striking her mother in December, causing bruising on the woman’s arms and legs. The girl and her mother had been staying at Blair’s family’s home in Readfield at that time. They later moved back to Lewiston.

The girlfriend initially had told police about the assault, but later denied it. Testifying Monday, the woman said she had lied to police about being assaulted by Blair because she was jealous of his relationship with another woman while she had been pregnant with Blair’s child. She later had a miscarriage, she said.

Questioned by Blair’s attorney, the woman said she had stopped taking her medication for bi-polar disorder, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder that caused her to lie to police about Blair’s conduct.

Monday’s hearing pitted contradictory testimony from the mother and daughter.

Explaining his decision in the case, Delahanty said he found the 12-year-old girl’s responses on the witness stand “to be direct, concise and very credible.”

About the girl’s mother, Delahanty said: “I don’t think she understands what the truth is in this matter.”

Delahanty said he didn’t find a preponderance of evidence to prove Blair had committed aggravated assault in Richmond in November 2017, a charge also brought by prosecutors.

Blair also is facing an 80-count indictment for bail violations in Androscoggin County based on phone calls made from Androscoggin County Jail as well as pending charges in Kennebec County Superior Court, said Lisa Bogue, an assistant district attorney prosecuting the case.

A sentencing hearing on his probation violations is scheduled for Aug. 27.

Two days before he turned 18, Blair attacked a man with an ice chopper. He had been one of a group of teens who had robbed a man in an alley near Bartlett and Walnut streets.

Blair was initially bound over as an adult on a charge of attempted murder. That charge was dismissed in a plea agreement that capped Blair’s sentence at 12 years.

Gary St. Hilaire, the victim, had been found lying on the ground in a pool of blood, his pockets turned inside out, when police officers arrived at the scene in November 2007. An ice chopper was found with St. Hilaire’s blood on the blade, its wooden handle splintered from the force of the blow.

The doctor who performed emergency surgery on the victim’s 9-inch-long skull fracture induced a coma for several weeks to allow the man’s brain to recover. His language and memory were impaired, along with the right side of his body, a prosecutor said.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

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