AUGUSTA – Two months after his arrest, a homeless man from Seattle who is accused of killing an Augusta woman 36 years ago is coming back to Maine for arraignment.

Gary Sanford Raub, 64, was transported from the King County Jail in Seattle on Wednesday, according to jail records. He had been held there on $1.5 million bail since his arrest Oct. 15 on the warrant from Maine.

Once Raub is back in Maine – as soon as today or Monday – he will be scheduled for arraignment in Kennebec County Superior Court on a charge of criminal homicide in the first degree, the murder statute that was in effect in 1976.

The charge says Raub knowingly and intentionally killed Blanche M. Kimball, 70, of Augusta and “inflicted great physical suffering” on her.

While the case has been assigned to Justice John Nivison, any judge could oversee the arraignment, at which Raub is expected to plead not guilty. No defense attorney was listed in the case as of Thursday afternoon.

Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said Raub would be held at the Kennebec County jail in Augusta, but he was not listed as an inmate there by late Thursday afternoon.

Raub was known as Gary Robert Wilson when he was in Maine in the 1970s. He is accused of stabbing Kimball, a retired practical nurse and dental technician, in her home. He had been a boarder in her home for a couple of weeks before her death, authorities said.

Kimball was stabbed several times, according to the medical examiner’s report. Her body was discovered on June 12, 1976, after neighbors told police she had not been seen for days.

That month, Raub told investigators twice that he had moved out previously. He denied involvement in Kimball’s killing, according to court documents.

Raub was charged with stabbing a Seattle man on Oct. 17, 2011, and police got a sample of Raub’s DNA, telling him he was taking part in a chewing gum survey.

They used the gum he had chewed to find DNA that matched DNA found on a bloody knife that was found at Kimball’s murder scene and a blood drop on the knife drawer in her kitchen, according to an affidavit by Maine State Police Detective Abbe Chabot.

That led to Raub’s indictment on Oct. 10 by a grand jury in Kennebec County and a warrant for Raub’s arrest.

When Raub was arrested, he had been living in Seattle’s university district, sleeping on the sidewalk near a clothing store, according to a woman who occasionally brought him food.

Seattle police records described Raub as a “transient with no known addresses, work locations, or relatives in this area,” and “flight risk and a danger to the community.”

 

Kennebec Journal Staff Writer Betty Adams can be contacted at 621-5631 or at:

badams@centralmaine.com