Police on Tuesday brought an additional, more serious felony charge of elevated aggravated assault against a Portland teenager who they say shot a 20-year-old Standish man last week.

Christopher McMann, 18, called police himself after the shooting Friday around 3:30 p.m. to report he had fired gunshots at Daniel Trimble-Smith after Trimble-Smith came to McMann’s house at 111 Elizabeth Road to confront him in a months-long dispute over a girl.

Trimble-Smith, who was shot in the shoulder and is expected to recover, told police in an interview at Maine Medical Center after the shooting that he never got out of his car and never went on McMann’s property.

Details of what the two men told police came out in reports made public Tuesday in the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland, where McMann was brought for his initial appearance before a judge. He was held in jail over the holiday weekend following his arrest Friday night.

Justice Roland Cole cleared the way for McMann’s release, setting bail at $10,000 cash or $50,000 surety, which allows McMann’s family members who were in court Tuesday to use their property as collateral.

McMann’s attorney, Christopher Leddy, said during bail arguments that McMann acted in self-defense after Trimble-Smith sent threatening text messages to McMann and then arrived at his house to carry out those threats.

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“No question there was a credible threat,” Leddy said outside the courtroom afterward, speaking about the text messages Trimble-Smith had sent.

Leddy would not say specifically what Trimble-Smith had said in the text messages, but said the threats were enough to make McMann shoot to defend himself.

“I don’t know what anyone else in that situation would have done,” Leddy said.

McMann did not speak during the court hearing as he stood at Leddy’s side, dressed in an orange jail uniform with an identification tag clipped to the front pocket of his short-sleeved shirt.

Deputy District Attorney Megan Elam argued that McMann’s family should not have been allowed to use their property as surety for his release. She said McMann fired repeatedly, hitting not only Trimble-Smith but an adjacent house, where one of the bullets lodged in a bookcase.

Police initially charged McMann with reckless conduct with a firearm, a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The new charge police added on Tuesday, elevated aggravated assault, is a Class A felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

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McMann was not required to enter a plea to either charge, since they are felonies. Prosecutors will next present their case against McMann to a grand jury to seek an indictment against him.

The statements McMann and Trimble-Smith made to police differ widely over whether Trimble-Smith came onto McMann’s property or simply drove by in his car.

McMann told Portland police Detective Barry Cushman that he received a threatening text from Trimble-Smith about 10 minutes before the shooting. He armed himself with his father’s 9mm Ruger SR9 pistol. McMann said that when Trimble-Smith arrived, he ignored the fact that McMann was armed, and came at him on his lawn with his hands at his side as if he was carrying a weapon, according to Cushman’s report.

“He told Dan (Trimble-Smith) to get off his property, but Dan kept approaching and said he wouldn’t leave. To scare Dan and defend himself, Chris fired two – or perhaps three – rounds toward the back of Dan’s car, down toward the tar and down the adjacent street (instead of up in the air so rounds wouldn’t hit an unintended target.) Right after he fired, Dan got in his car and drove off. He did not see that Dan was hit, nor did he see that a window was broken,” Cushman said in his report, summarizing what McMann had told him.

Trimble-Smith spoke with Detective Chris Giesecke after being treated for two gunshot wounds in the back of his left shoulder. Trimble-Smith said McMann initiated the text message exchange by sending him a nude picture of Trimble-Smith’s ex-girlfriend, according to Giesecke’s report.

“Trimble-Smith said he drove to McMann’s house. … He said that as he pulled up, McMann stepped out of his porch and started firing his gun at him. Trimble-Smith said he started driving away and McMann ran after the car, firing. He said he was shot when McMann first came out of the house,” Giesecke wrote in his report summarizing the hospital interview.

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Trimble-Smith also told Giesecke that he had expected the confrontation with McMann to result in a fistfight, if anything.

Police have seized Trimble-Smith’s car, a Nissan Altima, for examination. They also seized cellphones of the two men to examine text messages.

As conditions of bail, the judge also ordered McMann to have no contact with Trimble-Smith, not to possess any dangerous weapons and abide by a curfew from 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

McMann’s family members who appeared in court on his behalf, including his mother and father, declined to comment as they left the courtroom.

 


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