July 25, 2012

Man in shooting gets 9 months

By David Hench dhench@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

PORTLAND — A man who shot a woman in the chest with a pellet gun sparking a six-hour standoff with police was sentenced Wednesday to nine months in prison.

click image to enlarge

Portland Police takeBrian Kelley into custody on Cedar Street in Portland on Saturday May 5, 2012 after a six-hour standoff.

Carl D. Walsh/Staff Photographer

click image to enlarge

Portland Police and Swat team try to apprehend a shooting suspect during a standoff on Cedar Street in Portland on Saturday May 5, 2012.

Carl D. Walsh / Staff Photographer

Brian Kelley, 48, was charged with reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, aggravated assault and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon after the May 5 incident on Cedar Street.

He pleaded guilty in Cumberland County Unified Criminal Court to the reckless conduct charge in exchange for the others being dropped. Superior Court Judge Mary Kelly sentenced Kelley to four years in prison with all but nine months suspended and two years probation.

Kelley fired the high-powered pellet gun out a second-floor window of 19 Cedar St., hitting 46-year-old Lisa Marie Powers in the chest as she stood in front of the house. She was visiting friends in the building, but Kelley ordered her to leave, and the two argued prior to the shooting. She and Kelley apparently did not know each other prior to the shooting.

The incident happened at 11 a.m. on a Saturday as hundreds of high school students took the SAT college placement exam at nearby Portland High School. The school was locked down, though many of the students were oblivious to the tense standoff.

Powers was treated at the hospital for a pellet lodged above her spleen and was later released.

Police surrounded the house, but they had information that Kelley had access to other firearms, including an assault rifle, so they evacuated the neighborhood.

Police eventually sent in the special reaction team, which fired tear gas into the house. Kelley came running out the front door to escape the gas and was arrested.

Police found two assault rifles, a handgun and a hunting rifle in the building.

Kelley also faced civil penalties for creating a police standoff, an expensive undertaking for the department, but police said Kelley has no money so it made little sense to pursue that.

Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

dhench@pressherald.com

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