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The Skowhegan District Court in Skowhegan, on April 21. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)

SKOWHEGAN — A Waterville man arrested Saturday after police located a 4-year-old child reported missing in Fairfield is now facing additional charges.

Brandon Phair, 37, made his initial court appearance Monday afternoon at the Skowhegan District Court.

Prosecutors have charged Phair with Class A kidnapping, Class C criminal restraint, Class B burglary and Class D criminal mischief.

As the Class A, B and C counts are felony-level, prosecutors must seek an indictment from a grand jury for the case to proceed, and Phair was not asked to enter pleas Monday.

court appearance
Brandon Phair, left on the television screen, makes his initial court appearance Monday at Skowhegan District Court, participating via videoconference from the Somerset County Jail in Madison. At front is lawyer of the day Ryan Rutledge, of the Skowhegan law firm Mills, Shay, Lexier & Talbot. (Jake Freudberg/Staff Writer)

Judge Jeana McCormick determined Phair was eligible for a court-appointed attorney, but the court had no attorney available to appoint Monday. Ryan Rutledge, representing Phair as the defense attorney of the day, said he spoke with members of Phair’s family who are also looking into hiring an attorney for him.

A status conference on the appointment of an attorney for Phair was set for July 6 at Skowhegan District Court. He is due back in court after that Sept. 2 for a dispositional conference.

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McCormick ordered Phair to be held on $250,000 cash bail, subject to review once he has an attorney. Phair’s bail had been set at $500,000 when he was arrested Saturday, police said. He is being held at Somerset County Jail in Madison and appeared in court via videoconference.

Assistant District Attorney Bonnie Ingram requested bail be set at $75,000. Rutledge, of the Skowhegan law firm Mills, Shay, Lexier & Talbot, deferred making an argument on bail.

As bail conditions, McCormick ordered that Phair have no contact with the alleged victim in the kidnapping and criminal restraint charges, the alleged victim in the burglary and criminal mischief charges, and anyone younger than 18 years old. The alleged victims are listed in court records only by identifying numbers.

Phair is also forbidden from possessing firearms and dangerous weapons and must abide by a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, requested that a probable cause affidavit from police supporting probable cause for Phair’s arrest be sealed for 60 days. McCormick granted the request, a court clerk said, but her signed order was not available to view Monday afternoon.

The investigation is ongoing, and pretrial publicity of the information in the affidavit would jeopardize the investigation, First Assistant District Attorney Timothy Snyder wrote in the filing.

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Fairfield police responded around 2 a.m. Saturday to Main Street for a report of a missing 4-year old, the town’s police department said in a statement issued later that morning.

Officers searched the residence, and after they could not find the child, they requested assistance from more officers, police dogs and the fire department.

Police eventually located the child at a home in Waterville, Fairfield police said. The child was brought to a hospital as a precaution.

Police also found Phair in that residence and arrested him.

Phair is known to one of the residents of the Fairfield house where police initially responded but is not related to the child, police said.

The Waterville Police Department, the Maine State Police, the Maine Warden Service, the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, Fairfield-Benton Emergency Services and Somerset County dispatch center assisted with the investigation, police said.

Jake covers Skowhegan and Somerset County for the Morning Sentinel. He started reporting at the Morning Sentinel in November 2023. Jake grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Tufts University. While...

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