Tyrese Collins appears at his arraignment in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland on Monday. Collins was charged with the murder of Jack Wilson after Wilson died from his injuries on July 3. Collins is being held without bail.

A teenager accused in the fatal shooting of a 45-year-old man in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood last month was ordered held without bail Monday.

Tyrese Collins, 19, of Portland was charged Friday with murder in the death of Jack Wilson and made his initial court appearance Monday.

Collins, flanked by two lawyers, kept his head down during the short hearing before Superior Court Justice Thomas Warren at the Cumberland County Courthouse. In a soft voice, he answered, “Yes,” but did not raise his head when Warren asked Collins if he understood the charge against him.

According to police, Collins shot Wilson on June 26 during an argument on a street corner near the Oxford Street Shelter.

Police have released few other details about the shooting and haven’t said what they believe motivated the confrontation between Collins and Wilson. Warren impounded a police affidavit filed in the case and it likely won’t be released until after a grand jury acts in Collins’ case.

Initial police reports said a Portland officer was near the shelter at the time of the shooting and heard the gunshots. The officer provided first aid to Wilson, who lived primarily in the shelter and was taken to Maine Medical Center in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the stomach. He died a week later.

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Those facing capital charges normally aren’t allowed to post bail or have bail set very high. Warren noted that Collins was already being held on an aggravated assault charge for his alleged role in a November 2017 stabbing in Westbrook. Collins’ attorney Erik Paulson said that made a decision on seeking a bail hearing “academic” because it wouldn’t address the other charge that Collins faces. He had been held after the stabbing on $5,000 cash bail but was released in March on $250 cash bail with a pretrial contract setting out conditions for his release.

Collins was arrested again and held for three weeks in May on a charge of violating his conditions of release and was sentenced to seven days in jail. He was then released on $500 cash bail and his bail was revoked three days after the shooting.

Collins’ trial on the assault charge is scheduled for August.

Warren tentatively scheduled a status hearing on the murder charge for early fall.

The shooting of Wilson was one of several violent incidents in Bayside in recent weeks. Two people were injured in stabbings in June and two more were injured on July 1 in a shooting that police said was accidental and caused by careless handling of a gun. Police said they have stepped up their patrols of the neighborhood, but have said a “fringe element” is responsible for criminal activity, rather than those who live in Bayside or are there to use the shelter and other social service agencies.

Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com

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