A 17-year-old from Frankfort has been charged with murder in connection with the death of a Tenants Harbor woman who went missing while paddleboarding on Crawford Pond in Union.
Sunshine Stewart, 48, was reported missing in early July. Her body was found after a search was launched from a nearby campground. She was remembered as a kindhearted yet tough outdoorswoman who was a “jack of all trades.”
Police believe Stewart died of strangulation and blunt force trauma. An affidavit, laying out their case against the teen, was still sealed Tuesday.
Prosecutors from the Office of the Maine Attorney General want to charge the teen as an adult.
Here’s what has to happen next:
What happens when juveniles are charged with crimes?
Under Maine law, anyone who is alleged to have committed a crime before turning 18 is considered a juvenile.
Judges in juvenile court have a wide range of options when it comes to imposing consequences for young people after determining they have committed a crime. Judges can order that the juvenile participate in rehabilitative programming while in the custody of their parents. They can order the juvenile to participate in a supervised work or service program. They can order restitution.
They can also commit the juvenile to the custody of a relative or someone else if that is “in the best interest of the juvenile.” On occasion and under the appropriate circumstances, that could include the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Juveniles may also be ordered to serve a stint at the Long Creek Youth Development Center, Maine’s only youth prison. Long Creek is overseen by the Maine Department of Corrections, which operates the state’s adult prison system.
Juveniles who have committed crimes can only be sent to Long Creek if they’re older than 12. A young person ordered to serve time at Long Creek must be released after they turn 21.
Police say the 17-year-old charged in Stewart’s death is being held at Long Creek. He will turn 18 in September, according to court records. If a judge agrees by then that the state can prosecute him as an adult, and the judge orders his detention, he must be held at the adult section of a jail, according to Maine law.
What information is public in juvenile cases?
Maine law keeps most juvenile records confidential, with some exceptions.
Petitions for juveniles older than 13 who have been charged with murder can be inspected in person at courthouses. Members of the public can also request to inspect petitions for juveniles younger than 13, who have been accused of murder, but those aren’t automatically available.
Whenever a judge is asked to make something public or confidential, they have to determine whether there’s enough probable cause to support the accusations. They also have to determine whether the public’s right to information outweighs the privacy interests of the juvenile or the alleged victim, according to the law.
Prosecutors also must redact the names of alleged victims and any identifying information from public petitions.
Adjudication orders, which determine whether a juvenile committed a crime, are also available in person at courthouses for high-level crimes that, in the adult system, would entail more than three years in prison.
The law also lays out a process for juveniles to request their records be sealed.
What about juveniles accused of serious crimes, like murder?
Maine has a bind-over process that allows judges to decide whether juveniles accused of serious crimes should be tried as an adult. The bind-over process applies when a juvenile is accused of murder or a serious crime.
The 17-year-old in this case has been charged with “intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder,” according to a copy of a petition prosecutors filed in Knox County Superior Court.
Prosecutors can either request more time to investigate, or they can file a motion for a bind-over hearing, according to the law.
In the case of the teen charged in Stewart’s death, the attorney general’s office has already filed a motion for a hearing. That hearing had not been scheduled as of Tuesday. The prosecution and defense are scheduled to meet with the judge on Aug. 22.
What happens at a bind-over hearing?
A judge can consider any reports or investigative materials that prosecutors used to decide how to charge a juvenile.
Under Maine law, juveniles have the right to call on and have their attorneys cross-examine anyone who wrote a report or made statements that were part of the evidence in the case.
The judge considers the seriousness of the crime, the characteristics of the juvenile, including any previous history in court, potential risks to public safety and whether alternative sentencing options that are only available to juveniles are more appropriate.
The judge then has to issue a written decision on whether to bind over the juvenile.
That decision legally must follow a two-part process. First, the judge has to agree that prosecutors demonstrated enough evidence that the juvenile likely committed a serious crime, instead of a lesser offense under the law.
Then, the judge has to decide whether the juvenile — and the public — would be served best if the juvenile were tried as an adult.
Are there other cases like this?
Yes — a juvenile in Chelsea was arrested in June after the death of his foster father and cousin. Prosecutors declined Tuesday to share any information on that case, including whether they plan to file charges.
Another teen accused of shooting a man he lived with in 2022 is currently being prosecuted as an adult. Atilio Delgado is scheduled for a change of plea hearing on Aug. 5. Delgado appealed his bind-over decision to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, but they rejected his appeal without a written opinion in December.
