Prosecutors seek to try 17-year-old as an adult in Maine paddleboarder's death
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Prosecutors in Maine said Monday they will seek to try a 17-year-old charged with murder in the death of a paddleboarder as an adult.
The body of Sunshine 'Sunny' Stewart, 48, of St. George, was found earlier this month on Crawford Pond in Union, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Portland in a part of the state beloved by summer campers and nature lovers. Stewart went missing while paddleboarding before her killing, and her death sent shockwaves through the local community.
Police charged Deven Young, of Frankfort, Maine, with murder in the death of Stewart last week. He has been held at a youth detention facility in the Portland area and is due in court for a status conference on Aug. 22.
The Office of the Maine Attorney General is moving to bind Young over so he can be tried as an adult, said Danna Hayes, a spokesperson for the office. A judge will need to rule on the request.
The motion to try Young as an adult has been impounded by court and is not publicly available, Hayes said.
'Although the court allowed us to release the name of the defendant, all of the other documents remain impounded, so we do not have additional information we can share at this time,' Hayes said.
Young made a brief initial court appearance on Friday in which he entered a denial to the charge. His attorney, Jeremy Pratt, declined to comment Monday. If convicted of murder as an adult, Young faces a prison sentence of 25 years to life.
A medical examiner determined Stewart's cause of death was strangulation and blunt force trauma, police have said.
Authorities have not revealed a motive. Court documents released about the case contain little detail, and Maine State Police have declined to comment beyond announcing the arrest last week. They've said the investigation into Stewart's death is still active.
Stewart lived about 21 miles (34 kilometers) from the pond in the Tenants Harbor neighborhood in St. George.
Friends of Stewart have described her as a fiercely independent adventurer who was deeply dedicated to her friends. Over the years, she worked as a fisherman, boat captain, carpenter and bartender, among other jobs, friends said.
'She was just a wonderful friend, a really loyal, wonderful friend,' said a lifelong friend, Bethany Leach Parmley of Washington, Maine. 'She was just so fun and funny and you couldn't help but have a good time around her.'
The pond, in the 2,400-resident town of Union, is about 600 acres (243 hectares) and does not have public access. It is available for a variety of uses, including boating and fishing. The 100 Acre Island preserve in the center of the pond is a wooded island reachable by canoe, kayak or paddleboard from a nearby campground.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
13 hours ago
- New York Times
‘I Want to Clear My Name': Deported Migrant Takes First Step to Sue the U.S.
A Venezuelan migrant took the first step on Thursday toward suing the United States for what he says was his wrongful detention and removal to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, 27, spent four months in the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, where he said he was beaten and abused. He filed an administrative claim on Thursday with the Homeland Security Department, accusing U.S. immigration agencies of removing him without due process. It is the first such claim to be filed by one of the 252 Venezuelan men who were expelled and sent to El Salvador in March, his lawyers said, and is a necessary step before taking legal action against the U.S. government in federal court. Mr. Rengel, who is seeking $1.3 million in damages, was released last week as part of a large-scale prisoner swap between Venezuela and the United States. He is now living in Venezuela. 'I want to clear my name,' he said in a phone interview late Wednesday from his home in the state of Miranda. 'I am not a bad person.' The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately comment on Mr. Rengel's claim. The detention of Venezuelan men in El Salvador in March was one of the first high-profile efforts to fulfill President Trump's campaign promise of mass deportations. His administration has accused the migrants of belonging to a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, and his administration has used the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely invoked wartime law, to justify capturing and removing many of the men to El Salvador. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Bloomberg
13 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Trump Ally Sues Powell Demanding FOMC Meeting Public Access
An investment firm headed by a supporter of President Donald Trump sued Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and other Fed officials demanding public access to monetary policy meetings. James Fishback's Azoria Capital said in a suit filed Thursday that the decades-old practice of holding Federal Open Market Committee meetings behind closed doors violates government transparency laws. The fund asked a federal court in Washington to require the Fed to open its July 29-30 meeting.
CBS News
13 hours ago
- CBS News
U.S. Dept. of Education investigating 2 Michigan universities for alleged exclusionary scholarships under DACA
The U.S. Department of Education says it's investigating five American universities, including two in Michigan, for what it called possible violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, saying their DACA-affiliated scholarship programs may be discriminatory. The investigation, announced Wednesday, is targeting the University of Michigan and Western Michigan University, along with the University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska Omaha and the University of Miami. The federal education department says its intention is to "determine whether these universities are granting scholarships only for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals." DACA, often referred to as the Dream Act, has allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants who crossed into the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas as minors to live and work in the U.S., without fear of deportation. The education department drew attention to the University of Wisconsin's Dreamer scholarship and Western Michigan University's WMU Undocumented/DACA Scholarship. Neither the Trump Administration's America first policies nor the Civil Right (sic) Act of 1964's prohibition on national origin discrimination permit universities to deny our fellow citizens the opportunity to compete for scholarships because they were born in the United States," Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said. In announcing their investigation, the education department said they will also "examine additional scholarships that appear to exclude students based on other aspects of Title VI, including race and color." Kay Jarvis, director of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin, responded to Wednesday's announcement, saying, "The university has received a letter of notification relating to this matter. We have no further comment." CBS Detroit has reached out to Western Michigan University for comment and is awaiting a response. Last week, the same department announced it was launching a separate investigation into the University of Wisconsin following the arrests of Chinese nationals in a number of pathogen smuggling Montoya-Galvez and DeJanay Booth-Singleton contributed to this report.
