Maine
Man back in Maine to face murder charge over hit and run
ELLSWORTH, Maine (AP) — A person accused of working over his girlfriend with a automobile in Acadia Nationwide Park after which fleeing to Mexico is again in Maine to face a homicide cost.
Raymond Lester, 35, of Portland, made his first courtroom look in Maine on Tuesday, hours after his return to the state. He was arrested July 18 in Cancun, Mexico.
His girlfriend, Nicole Mokeme, died final month within the hit-and-run on the Schoodic Institute in Winter Harbor.
Lester, who didn’t enter a plea Wednesday on video from jail, was ordered detained pending a bail listening to at a future date. Steven Juskewitch, certainly one of his court-appointed attorneys, didn’t instantly return a message searching for remark.
Courtroom paperwork point out Mokeme was final seen close to a hearth pit late on June 18, and her physique was discovered the next day.
Witnesses reported that Lester’s feedback advised issues along with his relationship with Mokeme. Additionally they stated he’d been consuming and driving quick and dangerously by means of the campsite.
The sufferer served as inventive director of Rise and Shine Youth Retreat, which provides retreats and applications for Black kids and adults. She additionally was one of many organizers of the Black Excellence Retreat 2022, which was in progress on the time of the hit-and-run.
Authorities say license plate readers captured his BMW in a number of states, together with Georgia and Texas days after the killing. Mexican authorities arrested him with out incident in Cancun.