FARMINGTON – A Walpole man received a two-year prison sentence today in Franklin County Superior Court, having previously plead guilty to aggravated assault.
Clay Carter, 32, of Walpole, will serve two years of a partially-suspended, six-year prison sentence in a Department of Corrections facility. Attorneys for Carter and the state agreed to the plea arrangement hours before his jury trial was due to begin Monday, in which Carter plead guilty to aggravated assault and criminal mischief. Charges of gross sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact were dismissed.
On the evening of March 22, the victim was at a coworker’s apartment in the Stratton area when Carter arrived. Carter, who had been in a relationship with the victim, entered the apartment in what Assistant District Attorney James Andrews described as a “jealous rage” and dragged the victim out and into his car. He then took her to the apartment they shared and assaulted her, taking her by her hair and smashing her head into a deck, as well as picking her up and throwing her into a wall.
Two calls, played for the court at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, were made to a friend of the victim. In those recordings, a male’s voice identified by the state as Carter can be heard cursing at a woman in distress. The friend contacted police, and two Maine State Police troopers arrived at Carter’s residence at 10 p.m. and broke down the door.
The victim’s injuries were not considered “serious bodily injury” in a legal sense; consisting of scrapes and abrasions inflicted by being dragged up stairs, as well as scratches, bruising and swelling throughout her face. According to Andrews the charge of aggravated assault, a Class B felony, was supported by the “extreme indifference to the value of life” shown by Carter, rather than the more typical serious bodily injury requirement for aggravated assault.
The incident on March 22, Andrews said, was an attempt by Carter to exert “sexual, physical and emotional control,” over the victim. He also pointed to a previous conviction for non-domestic assault in 1997, the police report for which Andrews said indicated Carter had helped two other men kick the victim while he was on the ground. Also on Carter’s record is a conviction for violating the conditions of his release on March 25, 2010. Less than 24 hours after being released on bail, Carter called the victim twice and sent flowers, which violated non-contact provisions of his bail.
A statement prepared by the victim was read to the court by a Sexual Assault Victims Emergency Service’s advocate. In it, the victim said she continued to suffer from the physical and mental trauma inflicted by Carter.
“Don’t be fooled by what you see before you,” she told the court. “I was, and it changed my life forever.”
Andrews asked for a five-year prison sentence, out of a partially-suspended, eight-year sentence. Five years was the cap agreed to by Andrews and Walter McKee, the attorney representing Carter, when the plea arrangement was made.
McKee presented character witness testimony and letters on his client’s behalf, including woman who previously had been in a relationship with Carter and attested there had been no abuse. McKee also pointed to a combination of large amounts of alcohol and migraine medication Carter had taken earlier that evening as a potential culprit for what he described as a “single, aberrant act” by his client. McKee noted that other than the 1997 assault conviction, which he characterized as Carter coming to the defense of a younger boy, his client had no significant criminal history.
“This was unique behavior for Clay,” McKee said of the March 22 incident.
“I am not a violent or angry person,” Carter said, reading from a prepared statement, “and the thought I have caused injury to another has given me a tremendous burden of guilt that I will carry for the rest of my life.”
McKee asked for the court to impose a partially-suspended sentence, with seven months of jail time up front which would equate to the time Carter has already spent in custody awaiting trial.
Justice Michaela Murphy noted that the assault was a brutal one, despite the lack of serious bodily injury, and that she believed the victim had been significantly impacted by the actions of Carter.
“The fact that there was no bodily injury,” Murphy said, “the court attributes, frankly, to luck.”
Murphy also found that Carter was a good candidate for probation, as he possessed a large network of family, friends and counselors, and that he had no criminal history that she found significant enough to be an aggravating factor. She sentenced Carter to six years in prison, with all by two years suspended.
She also agreed to allow the state to insert language into the indictment asserting that the assault was inflicted upon a “domestic or household member,” allowing for four years of probation. Carter will be required to refrain from using or possessing alcohol, have no contact with the victim and undergo batterer’s intervention counseling.
