Waterville native Micah Plaisted is being remembered this week as a giving, happy-go-lucky guy who left this earth too soon.

Plaisted, 39, died July 13 in Englewood, Colorado, two days after a witness said he was severely beaten while trying to protect a woman from a man who was acting rudely to her, according to police documents filed in the State of Colorado Eighteenth Judicial District Court, County of Arapahoe.

Contacted Tuesday, Englewood police said they could not comment on the case while it is under investigation, instead referring a reporter to the Arapahoe District Attorney’s Office. A message left Tuesday for the press liaison in that office seeking the case file was not immediately returned.

But police documents filed in court say Yechamien Porter, 33, of Aurora, Colorado, was arrested July 14 on a charge of second-degree murder after the beating incident, which was reported at 2 p.m. outside the Englewood Civic Center. Another man was also seriously injured in the incident. Porter was taken to Arapahoe County Jail, according to Englewood police. Medical and autopsy reports showed Plaisted died of internal injuries including a ruptured spleen and lacerated liver.

Police documents say surveillance video showed Porter punching Plaisted in the face, causing him to fall, and Porter is shown repeatedly stomping and kicking Plaisted, even after he lost consciousness.

Plaisted’s sister, Danae Plaisted of Farmington, said Monday her brother was taken to a nearby hospital after the attack and he later discharged himself, only to die later. She said Micah was only 5 feet, 5 inches tall and his attacker was much bigger.

“He was unconscious, so he couldn’t even defend himself,” she said.

Danae said she and her brother, who are Black, were adopted as babies by Lana and Bruce Plaisted of Waterville, and they had an adventurous childhood. Their parents later divorced, but the family remained close. She recalled her family being featured prominently in the Morning Sentinel when they took part in a Martin Luther King Jr. walk in Washington, D.C.

“I was about 7 and Micah was about 8,” she recalled. “The story said, ‘Family joins peace march.’ It says Waterville family has a dream and they expect it will be realized Saturday.”

She and Micah were always very close — best friends — even after he got her into a pickle one evening when they were 11 and 10, respectively. Their mother was absorbed in a favorite 7 p.m. TV show and Micah got the idea of tossing a dime out of the window and seeing who could retrieve it first.

“The dime goes over the fence, and my shoelace got caught on top of the fence,” Danae recalled Monday. “I came down on both my elbows and said, ‘I can’t move.'”

He placed mud and leaves on her arm as an antidote, and she went to bed that way, she said, only to have her mother discover her arm was broken in two places.

Their mother, Lana Plaisted of Waterville, said Monday that Micah called her every day or night to make sure she was OK. She said he had experienced troubles in his life, but always stayed in contact, and he called her before he died.

“I’m happy for that, and that he is at peace,” she said.

Micah’s obituary says he is also survived by his father Bruce, stepmother Kathy, and brothers Jay K. Duplessie and Sean A. Duplessie. A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sept. 20 at South China Community Church.

Danae, who graduated from Waterville Senior High School in 2006 before attending Thomas College, said her brother was a great athlete and lived for snowboarding and skateboarding. He left high school during his senior year and went to Colorado. He lived there more than 20 years, she said, adding that she begged him to come back to Maine, but he declined, as his life was in Colorado. She said she last saw him about a year ago, but they kept in touch by phone. He was truly a free spirit, she said.

“He was such a wonderful soul, he was such a beautiful soul and he was just gone too soon,” she said. “I was supposed to grow old with my brother. I’m putting his ashes in my necklace and I will carry him for the rest of my life. Someone took his life and that wasn’t fair. I just want everyone to remember that he was gentle and he was kind.”

Carole Gilley, who taught music at Waterville Senior High School when Micah was a student, said she was close to Lana Plaisted when their sons went through high school together.

“Micah was very close to his sister,” Gilley recalled Tuesday. “He was incredibly kind to his friends and would do anything for them. He was hilarious — the life of the party. He was a gifted athlete, especially with hockey and skateboarding.”

Gilley said Micah was a friend to students of all walks of life, interests and perceived status.

“This is heartbreaking,” she said.