Skip Maine state header navigation
Attorneys for State: Andrew Ketterer, Attorney General Donald W. Macomber, Asst. Attorney General, (orally) William R. Stokes, Asst. Attorney General Thomas L. Goodwin, Asst. Attorney General 6 State House Station Augusta, ME 04333-0006 Attorneys for defendant: John D. Pelletier, Esq., (orally) Goodspeed & O'Donnell P O Box 738 Augusta, ME 04332-0785 M. Michaela Murphy, Esq. Daviau, Jabar & Batten 1 Center Street Waterville, ME 04901FOOTNOTES******************************** {1} . Cochran was sentenced to life imprisonment. {2} . The evidence given at trial by the State's expert was that the chance that the semen came from someone other than Cochran was one in 146 quadrillion. {3} . Some officers suspected that there may have been a connection between Baxter's murder and an unsolved 1971 murder of a Colby coed. In the mid-1980s Pelletier was tried for the Colby student's murder and found not guilty. Pelletier testified as a rebuttal witness for the State in Cochran's trial. Pelletier denied the accusations by Kelley and Roberts. {4} . The relevant portion of the rule reads: (b) Hearsay Exceptions. The following are not excluded by the hearsay rule if the declarant is unavailable as a witness: . . . . (3) Statement Against Interest. A statement which was at the time of its making so far contrary to the declarant's pecuniary or proprietary interest, or so far tended to subject the declarant to civil or criminal liability or to render invalid a claim by the declarant against another or to make the declarant an object of hatred, ridicule, or disgrace, that a reasonable person in the declarant's position would not have made the statement unless believing it to be true. A statement tending to expose the declarant to criminal liability and offered to exculpate the accused is not admissible unless corroborating circumstances clearly indicate the trustworthiness of the statement. A statement or confession offered against the accused in a criminal case, made by a codefendant or other person implicating both the declarant and the accused, is not within this exception. M.R. Evid. 804(b)(3). {5} . Cochran was on parole in 1976 for a manslaughter conviction in Illinois.