An Aroostook County man is appealing his sentence for a violent rampage in northern Maine during which he killed two people and shot three others.

Anthony Lord pleaded guilty last year two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, multiple counts of aggravated assault, reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, theft of firearms and eluding an officer. A charge of kidnapping was dismissed.

A judge gave Lord two life sentences, the maximum for the two counts of murder. In Maine, there’s no possibility of parole.

Lord has appealed that sentence. During oral arguments Wednesday in the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland, his attorney, Andrea Manthorn, argued that punishment was too severe.

Chief Justice Leigh Saufley said Lord had “serious challenges” to his appeal.

“You have a client who admitted to going on a rampage in which he killed two people, injured many others and really destroyed a number of communities,” Saufley said. “He has admitted that in a plea in which the court did a very good job in showing that he knew what he was doing. … Our job now is to make sure that even on these horrific facts, the court does the right thing when parsing out sentencing.”

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Lord, who was not present for the oral arguments, lived in Crystal in Aroostook County. The string of crimes began in July 2015 when Lord set fire to Kim and Richard Irish’s barn in Benedicta. Their daughter, Brittany Irish, had recently reported to police that Lord had kidnapped and raped her. When police responded to the barn fire, Brittany Irish said she begged them to protect her from the convicted sex offender, but they said they didn’t have the manpower.

The next morning, Lord stole firearms from a Silver Ridge Township home and beat up a man after tying him to a chair. He then went to the Irish home in Benedicta. He shot and killed Brittany Irish’s boyfriend, 22-year-old Kyle Hewitt, and wounded her mother. When the young woman tried to escape in a passing pickup truck, Lord shot and wounded the driver. He then drove her to a woodlot in Lee. He fired at two employees there, killing 58-year-old Kevin Tozier. Later that day, he gave himself up to police at his uncle’s house in Houlton.

Brittany Irish and her mother filed a federal lawsuit last year saying police failed to protect them from Lord. That case is pending.

Megan Doyle can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

mdoyle@pressherald.com

Twitter: megan_e_doyle


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