AUGUSTA — The 80-year-old woman stood in a courtroom at the Capital Judicial Center Thursday, her whole body shaking as she gripped the podium with both hands, and weighed in on how long the prison sentence for James W. Oliver should be.
Oliver, who pleaded guilty to sexual assault and other charges earlier this month, had pushed the woman off the Kennebec River Rail Trail and assaulted her, telling her he was going to rape her then throw her into the Kennebec River where her body would never be found.
“Don’t ever, ever let him out of that prison unless it’s in a body bag,” the white-haired woman said, clearly and resolutely, as Oliver stared straight ahead in Superior Court Justice Daniel Mitchell’s courtroom.
Mitchell sentenced Oliver, 58, of Augusta, to 28 years in prison, two fewer than sought by state prosecutors but 22 years more than his defense attorney requested.
Oliver, who has an extensive criminal record including multiple other sexual assault-related convictions, apologized to the woman, whom the Kennebec Journal is not naming because of its policy to not identify victims of sexual abuse without their consent.
“I’m very sorry for causing you pain and injuries, and for the things I said to you that day,” Oliver said, adding that he doesn’t remember much of the July 1, 2024, incident in Augusta. “I think I blacked out from the drugs and alcohol I was doing the day before. I wish I could take it back, the stuff I did and said to you that day.”
Oliver, described by Augusta police and in court documents as a transient , pushed the woman off the Rail Trail and into the brush, where he tried to pull her shorts down, but she fought him off. Instead he sexually assaulted her, and stated he was going to rape her, then throw her body into the river, all while perched on the edge of a steep embankment above the river.
The diminutive woman, who walked into court slowly and with assistance Thursday, said she repeatedly screamed for Oliver to stop, shouting that he was not going to rape her, and yelling for help.
Gerry Quintal, one of two men to come to the woman’s aid and end the attack, was out walking the Rail Trail, which connects Augusta and Gardiner along the western bank of the Kennebec, on that sunny morning. His mind, he said, was in neutral from the otherwise peaceful walk.
He recalled faintly hearing calls for help, which he first thought must’ve been a crow or other random noise. But as he got closer, he continued to hear louder calls of “help, help!” from the trail ahead. He ran toward the sounds and came around the corner to see Oliver on top of the woman with a cigarette in his mouth.
The woman, Quintal said in court Thursday, “contributed to saving herself, because I heard her calls for help.”
Quintal confronted Oliver, yelling for him to stop , but he said Oliver ignored him.
Adam Hayes, another passerby, also intervened. With the two passersby confronting Oliver, he stopped attacking the woman and walked away.
Hayes videotaped Oliver as he left the scene of the attack, which was next to a small utility substation a short distance up the Augusta end of the trail. After being confronted by Hayes, Oliver was heard on the video recording claiming the woman wanted to have sex with him, Maeghan Maloney, district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties, said in court.
Mitchell said the incident was a senseless and unprovoked attack. The fact it took place in public in broad daylight was an aggravating factor in the crime and sentence. He said the biggest aggravating factors were the impact on the woman and Oliver’s extensive criminal record. He said the only mitigating factor was that Oliver accepted responsibility for what he did by pleading guilty to charges of attempted gross sexual assault, unlawful sexual contact, criminal threatening, and assault.
Oliver’s lawyer, Frayla Tarpinian, advocated for an 18-year prison sentence, with all but six of those years suspended, and four years of probation. That would have meant Oliver would serve six years in prison if he complied with the terms of his probation, but could face up to 18 years if he violated probation.
Tarpinian argued that while Oliver’s crime was serious and had a traumatic impact on the victim, it had a brief duration and did not involve a weapon, nor any serious, lasting physical injuries to her, and that Oliver should be sentenced in line with other defendants in similar cases. She said even gross sexual assaults that are completed, not just attempted like in Oliver’s case, typically get around 10 years of unsuspended prison time, and the average sentence for manslaughter, in which someone dies, is only five years.
Tarpinian, who was recently named executive director of the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services, the state agency responsible for representing criminal defendants, said the state’s 30-year recommendation was outrageously excessive.
Oliver, who is on the state’s sex offender registry, has at least three past sexual assault-related convictions. In 2015, he was sentenced to three years in prison on a charge of attempted gross sexual assault. In 2011, he was sentenced in Superior Court in Rockland to six months in prison on a charge of unlawful sexual conduct. In 1990, he was sentenced in Superior Court in Wiscasset to 16 years in prison on a charge of rape, according to information on the sex offender registry.
Maloney said it was hard to find sentencings from other cases to compare to Oliver’s sentence, “because we thankfully live in a place where conduct like this doesn’t happen. I’m glad to say we don’t have exactly comparable cases, because this is particularly heinous conduct.”
Oliver, a tall, slender man with a graying goatee who wore a green jail uniform Thursday, was also sentenced on burglary and criminal mischief charges he previously pleaded guilty to, for breaking into MD’s Market in Augusta earlier in the day of the sexual assault, causing thousands of dollars of damage and stealing some $4,000 worth of condoms, alcohol, and cigarettes.
He will serve a five-year sentence on those charges, concurrently with his 30-year sentence on the attempted gross sexual assault case.
