AUGUSTA (AP) — Maine’s highest court has denied a new trial to a Lewiston man convicted of stabbing his former girlfriend 21 times.
Cleveland Cruthirds was sentenced to serve 22 years of a 28-year sentence after he was convicted last summer of elevated aggravated assault and other charges in the December 2011 attack.
The Sun Journal reports that the 27-year-old Cruthirds claimed in his appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court that the trial judge made several errors, including the exclusion of an alternate suspect theory, and abused his discretion in allowing some evidence. Cruthirds also claimed his constitutional due-process rights were violated.
The court on Tuesday disagreed and affirmed the judgment.
The girlfriend called 911 during the attack and named Cruthirds several times to a dispatcher, even spelling out his name.
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