AUGUSTA — Justin Pillsbury, convicted in March of murdering Jillian T. Jones in November 2013 in Augusta, will not get a new trial.
Justice Michaela Murphy denied a defense motion for a new trial, rejecting two grounds following brief oral arguments Tuesday afternoon at the Capital Judicial Center.
Pillsbury’s attorney, Stephen Smith, argued that the prosecutor’s opening statement in that trial carried racial connotations that are “unavoidable and unacceptable” and probably affected the verdict.
Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber, in that opening statement, briefly described a scene in which Jones, 24, originally from Bingham, was punched in the head and stabbed in the back before fleeing to the bedroom and finally the bathroom, where she died after suffering 12 knife wounds.
“Why did Justin Pillsbury stab Jillian Jones to death?” Macomber asked as he stood in front of the jury in mid-March. “Because he was jealous. Jealousy’s been described as a ‘green-eyed monster.’ Well, ladies and gentlemen, on Nov. 13, 2013, that green-eyed monster was uncaged in apartment 6 at 32 Crosby St. here in Augusta.”
The defense attorney Smith argued in his motion that this was a reference to Shakespeare’s Othello, a black Moor. The prosecutor, meanwhile, said he was referring to jealousy, not race, with that comment, and that the issue raised in the motion was already raised and rejected by the judge during the trial.
Murphy on Tuesday said she was the one who initially raised the concern.
She said she was satisfied there was no intent to prejudice the parties or inflame the jury, and that nothing rose to the level of prosecutorial misconduct, but added that it was “right on the line.”
Macomber said Pillsbury had seized Jones’ cellphone because he believed she was in contact with another man, and she fought to retrieve it.
“Common sense and reason will tell you that when a person confesses that he repeatedly stabs another person who is a foot shorter and a hundred pounds lighter because he thinks that other person might be cheating on him and that he was not acting in self-defense when he did it, that it is almost certainly true that is in fact what happened,” Macomber said.
The topic of race was raised early in the trial when potential jurors responded in writing to seven questions concerning their ability to “fairly and impartially decide” a case where some individuals might be of a minority race. They also responded to five questions concerning their ability to fairly decide a case accusations of domestic violence.
Pillsbury, now 41, was stabbing himself in the neck in an apparent suicide attempt when the apartment tenant returned home that night.
Pillsbury recovered and testified at his trial, saying she had grabbed a knife first and that he stabbed her in self-defense.
Four blood-covered knives were found in the one-bedroom apartment, three of them with Pillsbury’s DNA on them and one with a mixture of DNA from both of them, forensic scientists testified.
Murphy also presided over the trial.
Smith also cited in his argument for a new trial the testimony of witness Brittany Kirk of Cornville, who testified she was in Pillsbury’s apartment in Benton in July 2013 when Pillsbury accused Jones of cheating on him and shoved her into the couch. Smith said that testimony should have been deemed inadmissible because it was inflammatory and prejudicial.
At the trial, Kirk testified that Jones denied cheating on Pillsbury. However, under questioning by Smith, Kirk said she drove Jones, who did not have a driver’s license, to meet various men, but said not all those meetings were sexual encounters.
Murphy rejected that argument as well, and said Tuesday that sentencing would be July 21.
A murder conviction in Maine carries a minimum mandatory sentence of 25 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of release.
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