FARMINGTON — A Franklin County judge set bail at $25,000 cash for a New York man accused of shooting a Jay man in the leg Tuesday in an apartment on Church Street.

Christian Meyers Franklin County Detention Center photo

After a review of the case, the District Attorney’s Office charged Christian Meyers, 21, of Manhattan, New York, with one count each of elevated aggravated assault, receiving stolen property, reckless conduct with a firearm and sexual abuse of a minor. Convictions on the charges range from 364 days in jail to 30 years in prison.

The gun used in the case was stolen from an unlocked car on Sept. 30 on Maxwell Road in Wilton, according to police.

Assistant District Attorney James Andrews requested bail be set at $50,000 cash, while defense attorney Maurice Porter argued for $10,000 cash. Andrews argued that Meyers was a flight risk because he fled after the shooting. Porter said Meyers has an aunt in Maine who is an attorney.

Meyers made his appearance in Farmington District Court via video from the Franklin County Detention Center. He didn’t enter a plea because there are three felony charges that require the case to go to a grand jury.

According to Andrews and Porter, Meyers has no criminal convictions.

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Porter said Meyers’ mother sent him to Maine about a month ago to look for land to buy.

According to Jay Police Chief Joseph Sage’s affidavit, on Tuesday, a 28-year-old man residing in an apartment at 22 Church St. called police to report he was shot in the right side of groin area.

When police arrived he told them he had gone to the third floor apartment at 25 Church St. to get money — over $300 and less than $400 — owed to him from the man who lived there. The victim said the man, who was later identified as Meyers, pulled a gun and threatened to shoot him. The victim was wrestling for the gun when Meyers pulled the trigger shooting him in the leg near the groin area, according to the affidavit.

The victim was taken by ambulance to a Lewiston hospital for a single gunshot wound.

Defense attorney Porter said Meyers told him he didn’t know the person who came to his apartment and that the man brought the gun with him.

Officers canvassed the neighborhood and located Meyers at a Bemis Street address in Livermore Falls. He was in the company of a 14-year-old girl from Livermore Falls, who Meyers referred to as his girlfriend. Meyers had given the girl his backpack containing a loaded handgun and she took the items to hear home, according to the affidavit.

Sage met with the girl and the girl’s father and she provided Sage with the backpack and the gun she had hidden in the floorboards of her father’s room. The girl told Sage that Meyers told her the gun was in the backpack and he had shot at someone after pulling the gun on the man, who grabbed the gun and started fighting with him.

The girl was brought to the Jay Police Department where she provided a statement about the incident and admitted to being in a sexual relationship with Meyers. The girl also told Sage she was aware Meyers was 21 years old and Meyers knew she was 14 years old and that they had parental consent to be in a relationship, according to the police affidavit.

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