The Maine Supreme Judicial Court denied the appeal Thursday of a former Gardiner man who was seeking to have his murder conviction reversed and stand a new trial.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has denied the appeal of Dylan Ketcham, 26, who was seeking to have his murder conviction reversed and stand a new trial. Above, the former Gardiner man watches from the defendant’s table at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta while standing trial in January 2023 on charges of murder and attempted murder. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

Dylan Ketcham, 26, was found guilty last year of murder in the January 2020 shooting death of Jordan Johnson and attempted murder of Caleb Trudeau. Ketcham shot and killed Johnson near Quimby Field in Gardiner after agreeing to meet with Johnson and Trudeau.

Trudeau struggled with Ketcham to prevent him from pulling out a machete, but failed and was ultimately severely injured. Ketcham nearly severed both of Trudeau’s wrists and cut his skull to the bone.

Kennebec County Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy later sentenced Ketcham to serve 65 years in prison. Ketcham appealed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest court, which heard oral arguments last month.

Michelle King, Ketcham’s lawyer, had argued the court should have ordered a mental competency test for Ketcham when he waived his right to testify on his own behalf. She also said the court harshly applied sentencing principles, violating the Maine Constitution.

King also argued that text messages sent between Johnson and Trudeau before the violent encounter showing that Johnson planned to use deadly force — and that Ketcham was, therefore, acting in self-defense — were improperly kept from jury’s consideration during the trial.

The high court unanimously disagreed with all three arguments in decision issued Thursday.

The mental competency test, Associate Justice Andrew Horton wrote in the opinion, was the responsibility of Ketcham’s lawyer to request in the first place. The trial court conducted a competency test before the trial, which determined Ketcham was competent — and Ketcham’s own lawyers argued during the trial that a second test was not needed.

“Here, the court undertook the required inquiry into Ketcham’s competence to stand trial and did not act arbitrarily or abuse its discretion by relying on Ketcham’s counsel, who had noticed Ketcham’s ‘different’ demeanor and spoken with Ketcham to confirm that he understood the proceedings,” Horton wrote.

“Although the court could have ordered a competency evaluation on its own initiative, it was not required to do so, particularly when counsel had indicated that such a measure was unnecessary.”

Horton also wrote that sentencing Ketcham to de facto life imprisonment — given the case’s brutality — was appropriate.

Of the text messages, Horton wrote the trial court properly disallowed them from being considered by the jury. Ketcham could not have known about the text messages before the murder, Horton wrote, and they, therefore, were not a valid supplement to Ketcham’s argument of self-defense.

“There was no evidence that Ketcham was aware of the exchanges before he shot Johnson and maimed Trudeau,” Horton wrote, “so they could not have caused Ketcham to believe that Johnson or Trudeau was about to use force or deadly force against him.”