AUGUSTA — A Belgrade man entered conditional guilty pleas Monday to charges that he sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl in a portable outhouse in a parking lot in North Belgrade in 2015.
The guilty pleas from Travis R. Gerrier, 23, who more recently lived in Carmel and Dixmont, are conditional because he plans to challenge earlier rulings in which he was found competent to stand trial and a judge refused to suppress a confession Gerrier made to a Maine State Police detective. Those appeals will be heard by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
Gerrier was due to go on trial prior to entering the pleas. A sentencing hearing for Gerrier is expected to be scheduled in about two months.
Gerrier had previously pleaded not guilty to charges of gross sexual assault, unlawful sexual contact, and furnishing liquor to a minor in connection with the events the night of June 3-4.
On Monday at the Capital Judicial Center, Justice Donald Marden asked Gerrier a long series of questions to ascertain whether Gerrier understood his rights, aspects of the guilty plea and potential penalties.
Neither the victim nor her mother were in the courtroom. The girl’s mother, who was in a small conference room outside the courtroom, later declined to speak to a reporter.
Gerrier previously had been evaluated by three experts and one suggested that Gerrier’s “presentation suggested someone with limited intellectual functioning.”
While the maximum prison term for a Class A gross sexual assault conviction is 30 years, Gerrier’s attorney, Sherry Tash, noted that Gerrier could be sentenced to “any term of years” because the victim was younger than 12 years old when the crime occurred. She also said she was unsure whether Gerrier was competent to enter pleas.
Assistant District Attorney Kristin Murray-James described the crimes, saying that Gerrier knew the girl was 11 and that she told him via Facebook that she was walking to the snack shack in Belgrade after an argument with her mother.
Murray-James said Gerrier brought a bottle of Gatorade with whiskey in it.
The girl later said that, “After drinking it, she felt dizzy and out of it,” Murray-James noted.
The prosecutor said Gerrier took the girl to a port-a-potty, where sexual assaults occurred.
Murray-James said that if the case went to trial, the state would present evidence that the defendant’s DNA was found on the girl.
Family members and police found the two in the port-a-potty that night. Murry-James said the girl came out of the port-a-potty, and then Maine State Trooper Jesse Duda found Gerrier sitting on the ground inside.
Betty Adams can be contacted at 621-5631 or at:
badams@centralmaine.com
Twitter: betadams
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