An inmate has been indicted on a first degree murder charge stemming from a “resident on resident” fight last February that resulted in the death of a fellow inmate at the Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility in Berlin.
A Coos County grand jury has indicted Robert Lavoie, 57, for striking James Dale, 65, with a metal pipe on Feb. 13. Dale was taken to Androscoggin Valley Hospital and then transferred to a trauma center but passed away the next day. New Hampshire Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jennie V. Duval ruled the death a homicide, saying the autopsy determined Dale’s death was the result of head and neck injuries.
Both Lavoie and Dale were serving life sentences at the prison. Dale was convicted in 1997 of second-degree murder for raping and killing a 6-year-old girl in Hopkinton and sentenced to serve 60 to 120 years in prison. Dale had insisted he was innocent of the charge and was actively fighting his conviction.
Dale was also convicted in 2000 of attempted first degree murder for slashing the throat of an inmate at a prison in Pennsylvania using a razor blade attached to a tooth brush. Dale was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison for charges stemming from the attack. At the time, he was being housed in a Pennsylvania prison under an interstate compact.
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Court records show that Lavoie is serving a sentence for first degree murder after a jury found him guilty of the charge back in 1992. His sentence runs through 2091 but details of the incident were not available. He is currently being held at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord according to New Hampshire Corrections records.
New Hampshire Corrections requested investigative assistance from New Hampshire State Police and the investigation was turned over to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office. Lavoie’s indictment was announced jointly by Attorney-General John Formella, State Police Col. Mark Hall, and Department of Corrections Commissioner Helen Hanks.
Lavoie is scheduled to be arraigned on January 3, 2024, at 10:45 a.m. in the Coos County Superior Court in Lancaster.
The Northern New HampshireCorrectional Facility is a medium-security prison that currently houses just over 700 inmates.
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visitcollaborativenh.org.
CONCORD, N.H. – New Hampshire lawmakers have moved to reject a Republican-backed proposal to launch an impeachment inquiry into the lone Democrat on the state’s five-member Executive Council.
On Friday, a key committee of lawmakers delivered a unanimous 17-0 vote against an impeachment inquiry into Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill of Lebanon, N.H.
The vote on House Resolution 41 followed an abbreviated public hearing, after the bill’s sponsor withdrew his support for the proposal and instead asked lawmakers on the committee to recommend killing it.
The push for Liot Hill’s impeachment was led by Representative Joe Sweeney, a Salem Republican and the deputy majority leader in the New Hampshire House.
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At issue were several emails Liot Hill had sent from her official account to help a partisan law firm identify voters impacted by a new state law. The law tightened voter ID requirements for absentee ballots.
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Sweeney had previously called Liot Hill’s correspondence “political lawfare run out of a taxpayer-funded inbox.” In December, a review by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office found that Liot Hill’s conduct was not illegal and did not constitute a misuse of office, clearing the complaint against her.
Reached by the Globe on Friday, Sweeney, who was not present at the public hearing, said in a statement he preferred to let voters decide whether Liot Hill should continue to serve in the upcoming November election.
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“After reviewing the matter and hearing the discussion, I believe the appropriate course is to move forward and allow the voters and the political process to do their work,” he said.
“The purpose of filing the resolution was to ensure that the constitutional questions raised were addressed seriously and transparently,” he said, noting that he stands by the process and the decision to recommend killing the resolution.
In an interview, Liot Hill said she was pleased with the unanimous vote from the House Judiciary Committee.
“The committee vote, I think, sends the message that there was no merit to this,” she said.
The proposal now heads to the full House of Representatives, which has the power to approve the committee’s recommendation to reject it.
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Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.
A woman has been arrested in connection with the death of her baby whose body was found in a pond in Manchester, New Hampshire last year. Hepay Juma, 26, of Manchester, is now charged with reckless second-degree murder.
The New Hampshire Attorney General said Juma was arrested for “causing the death of Baby Jane “Grace” Doe, her child, under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
On March 27, 2025, the baby’s body was found floating in the water at Pine Island Park in Manchester. The baby’s death was treated as suspicious following an autopsy.
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Investigators have not released any information about how they made the arrest or how the baby died.
Hepay Juma, 26, of Manchester, NH, is charged in connection with the death of her baby.
Manchester, NH police
At the time, Manchester Police Chief Peter Marr said the baby’s death was “extremely tragic.”
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Police asked the public for help after the baby’s body was discovered. They wanted to know if anyone saw someone discarding anything in the water in the previous 14 days, or if anyone knew a pregnant woman who gave birth during that time who needed medical help.
A funeral was held for baby Grace Doe last May, and the public was invited to pay their respects. “The way she was discarded is heartbreaking, and it is important that we give her a proper farewell,” Chief Marr said last year.
The baby was named Grace by police “to celebrate the kindness extended to her by those who refuse to let her life go unrecognized.”
Juma is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday in Manchester District Court.
