Trial and Error

Apr 7, 2010

Bangor Daily News
Dechaine treated for undisclosed illness
By The Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO Convicted murderer Dennis Dechaine stands by a window in a conference room at the Maine State Prison in Warren, Maine, April 6, 2005. Dechaine was hospitalized for an undisclosed illness.

WARREN, Maine — The Maine State Prison inmate who’s seeking a new trial for the 1988 kidnapping and killing of a 12-year-old girl has been hospitalized for an undisclosed illness.

Corrections officials say 52-year-old Dennis Dechaine was removed from the prison on Monday. She declined to discuss his medical condition.

Bill Moore, a private investigator who’s part of Dechaine’s legal team, tells the Portland Press Herald that Dechaine had problems with heart rate and blood pressure.

Dechaine, a former Bowdoinham farmer, is serving a life sentence for the murder and rape of Sarah Cherry. Dechaine maintains his innocence and is pressing for a new trial based on DNA evidence.