Brooke McLaughlin, 14, lived at this house on Blackberry Road in Mount Vernon with her boyfriend, Aidan Grant. A hearing is being held this week in Waterville to determine if Grant, 16, will be tried as a juvenile or an adult in McLaughlin’s July 2022 death. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald file
WATERVILLE — A state prosecutor chipped away Wednesday at claims made by Aidan Grant following the death last year of 14-year-old Brooke McLaughlin by painting a picture of a boy who stabbed her 10 times, fled and then made up accounts of what happened.
It was the second day of testimony at Waterville District Court to determine if Grant, now 16, will be tried in adult court in the death of McLaughlin or remain at the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland until he is 21.
Assistant Attorney General Katie Sibley called to the stand numerous law enforcement officials who worked on the case, asking them about interviews they conducted and evidence that was collected after the July 18, 2022, killing at McLaughlin’s Mount Vernon mobile home.
Sibley also produced police photographs and audio recordings of interviews officials had with family members of both teenagers.
According to testimony, Grant initially told his family and police he and McLaughlin were alone at her home, where he had been staying for three or four months, and that he saw a man enter the home with something in his hand, causing Grant to panic and leave.
Grant later confessed to a supervisor at Long Creek that he had stabbed McLaughlin with a knife in their bedroom after a dispute about their prior relationships, according to testimony.
Grant said McLaughlin was jealous and feared he would leave her, and she choked and struck him. He said he had been drinking vodka and smoking marijuana, and grabbed a knife in the bedroom, near a birthday cake. It was Grant’s birthday that day.
Sibley disputed that claim, saying testimony has shown there was no such cake at the house at that time.
Grant said he told Long Creek officials he went into the living room, McLaughlin followed him and he heard her collapse onto the living room floor behind him, according to testimony from police and psychologists.
Brooke McLaughlin Courtesy photo
According to other interviews, the content of which were revealed in court Wednesday, Grant said when he left the house, there was no vehicle in the driveway. But testimony has shown he took a red Chevrolet Impala from the driveway and driven it around Readfield, Wayne, Jay, Monmouth, North Turner and Livermore, and finally drove to a sandpit about 100 yards from where his father lived in Wayne, parked it and walked toward the woods.
The locations were determined by Maine State Police after analyzing cellular data. Officials said Grant had McLaughlin’s cellphone when he was driving around.
Grant’s court-appointed lawyer, John Pelletier of Readfield, led testimony Tuesday in which psychologists who studied Grant’s background and interviewed him said he was an average student with no criminal history and was passive and submissive, not homicidal or suicidal. Grant suffered from anxiety and depressive moods, according to testimony.
Pelletier said Grant was remorseful for what he had done. His defense lawyer painted a picture of a boy who was in a sexual relationship with a young girl and neither of them had the emotional tools to deal with adult behaviors. They were mostly home alone with little adult supervision and cooked their own simple meals.
Grant told officials that McLaughlin became volatile when she was off her medications, and would obsess about the possibility he would leave her. Although he told her that was not the case, she would still threaten suicide.
On Wednesday, Sibley questioned Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Liam Funte, who described the stab wounds on McLaughlin’s body, including to her neck, chest, back, head and hands. He described the death the result of “sharp force injuries.”
Despite Grant’s claiming at one point the stabbing occurred in the bedroom, testimony showed there was a lot of blood in the living room, on the couch, a chair and the carpeting, as well as splatters on other items, including a cat litter box and shelf.
Sibley played a recording in which McLaughlin’s mother, Rebecca McLaughlin, was interviewed by state police Deputy Cpl. Mark Ferreira after the killing. Rebecca McLaughlin recalled coming home after 6 p.m. with a birthday cake for Grant, finding the door unlocked, which was unusual, and putting the cake down to go to the bathroom. She said in the recording she discovered vomit in the bathtub and thought it was her daughter who had vomited.
Rebecca McLaughlin said she went into the kitchen, saw a knife on the kitchen table, threw it in the sink, yelled for Brooke and then discovered her daughter’s body, which was face down on the living room floor.
“She was my baby,” a weeping McLaughlin said to Ferreira in the recording.
Both Rebecca McLaughlin and Grant’s mother, Melissa, said in audio recordings played in court that the teens were sweet people who appeared to have a loving relationship.
The hearing before District Court Judge Andrew Benson is scheduled to resume at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
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