The man arrested Monday night in connection with an attempted murder in Gray on Sunday has an extensive criminal record in Maine, including 13 years in prison for an attempted murder in Portland in 1982.

Jon Brown was taken into custody about 7 p.m. Monday at a rental cabin along Roosevelt Trail in Windham. He was captured by the Maine State Police Tactical Team, which surrounded the cabin.

He surrendered without incident and was taken to the state police barracks in Gray for questioning. Police planned to take him to the Cumberland County Jail in Portland.

Brown, 52, was in prison from 1984 to 1997 for the crime in 1982. His record includes convictions for burglary, gross sexual assault, theft, assault and attempted escape from prison, all from 1977 to 1983.

The man he allegedly assaulted and shot Sunday night had surgery Monday at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston to remove bullet fragments from his skull and his badly damaged right eye.

Police say Harold S. Small, 64, of 429 Shaker Road was beaten, tied up and shot in the face at his home around 11:20 p.m. Sunday.
Despite suffering the gunshot wound from a small-caliber handgun, Small remained conscious, freed himself and called police.
Small knows Brown and identified him as the attacker, said Capt. Don Goulet of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.

“It is a very serious injury, and a very serious surgery,” Goulet said.

Goulet said the shooting apparently was unrelated to the 1982 crime, and he declined to comment on a possible motive for the attack.
State police, assisted by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, Windham police and the Southern Maine Violent Crimes Task Force, searched for Brown all day Monday.

Brown lived in Portland in the early 1980s, but police do not know where he has been living recently.

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