AUGUSTA — Saying a 20-year prison term proposed in a plea deal might not be long enough, a judge delayed sentencing Wednesday for a man who broke into the home of a 73-year-old Waterville woman and raped her.
Mark D. Halle, 33, of Waterville pleaded guilty in August to charges of gross sexual assault, burglary and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon in the case.
Halle removed an air conditioner and climbed through a living room window in the woman’s Waterville home around 4 a.m. on Feb. 7, 2016.
The victim said in court Wednesday that Halle put a pillow case over her head, sexually assaulted her, sodomized her with a pellet gun, washed her in her tub, and said he knew her family and would kill them and her if she reported the crime. The Kennebec Journal does not identify victims of sexual assaults.
She asked that he be given the maximum sentence, “so he’ll never be able to do the terrible things he did to me to others.”
Halle told Justice Michaela Murphy “There is no excuse for what I’ve done. I’d like to say I’m very sorry.”
The gross sexual assault charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, but the state and Halle’s attorney, Pamela Ames, had proposed a plea agreement capping the sentence at 20 years.
Murphy said she was “very concerned about the 20-year period of incarceration and whether it is sufficient to protect the public.” She said facts were disclosed in a victim impact statement that were not presented previously “that make the court very concerned about public safety in this matter.”
She said a psychological evaluation of Halle should be done before sentencing and postponed the sentencing date until Nov. 20.
Halle has no previous criminal record. Ames said Halle “has had a miserable life” that included abuse as a child, and has been an alcoholic since he was 13. He is also bipolar and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from his childhood abuse, but couldn’t fill prescriptions for his medications because he had no money, no insurance and no job, Ames said.
She said he broke into the woman’s home seeking money after he’d been drinking with a friend all night.
“He broke in for money,” Ames said. “She didn’t give him money and it went bad from there.”
She said Halle has taken responsibility for the crime and asked the state to make a plea offer rather than force the matter to trial.
The victim, however, said that while Halle may have been intoxicated, he knew what he was doing.
“I believe he knows what he broke into my home to do,” she said. “It was to rape me.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.