AUGUSTA — Two more men are to be sentenced Monday in the Nov. 23, 2015, drug-related bludgeoning death of Joseph Marceau, 31, of Augusta.
The hearing is set for 1 p.m. at the Capital Judicial Center.
Damik “Doughboy” Davis, 28, of Queens, New York, and Michael “Dirty” Sean McQuade, 47, of Augusta, pleaded guilty 11 months ago to felony murder and robbery in the Augusta killing and signed agreements with the state that spelled out their sentencing parameters.
Joseph Marceau
The agreements said they would cooperate with prosecution of others in the case.
A third man, Aubrey Armstrong, 29, of Far Rockaway, Queens, New York, was sentenced on July 13 to 30 years in prison for felony murder and a concurrent 29 years for the robbery.
Under Maine law, a person is guilty of felony murder if he or she commits or attempts to commit a felony – murder, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, arson, gross sexual assault, or escape – and this causes the death of another person.
Justice Daniel Billings said there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Armstrong personally of carrying out the murder.
It is not clear who administered the fatal blows to 31-year-old Marceau in the trash-strewn, fourth-floor apartment on Washington Street from which McQuade and his girlfriend Zina Fritze had been evicted. Fritze committed suicide in jail a day after pleading not guilty to the murder charge.
Davis and McQuade blamed Armstrong for the fatal beating. Armstrong did not testify at his trial.
Billings unsealed the two cooperation agreements Friday. The agreements, signed Aug. 22, 2017, say that the murder charges against Davis and McQuade will be dismissed when they are sentenced on the felony murder and robbery charges.
Davis agreed to a sentence of 30 years – 10 years suspended. He was not called to testify at Armstrong’s trial.
McQuade, who testified at Armstrong’s trial and said he saw Armstrong beat Marceau to death, agreed to a sentence of 25 years, with 10-15 years suspended.
McQuade also is to be sentenced on a series of burglary, theft and burglary of a motor vehicle charges to which he previously pleaded no contest.
McQuade testified that Armstrong wanted to rob Marceau of 5 grams of heroin and that McQuade and Fritze accompanied Davis, Armstrong and Marceau to the apartment.
He said he saw Marceau standing with his back to the entry door and Armstrong and Davis facing him.
“Immediately a milk bottle came smashing down across Joe’s head,” McQuade testified. “It was like a nanosecond, then Doughboy came smashing down with a chair across his head.”
McQuade said during the first 10 seconds Marceau hollered for them to “just take it,” meaning the drugs, but the beating didn’t stop.
Betty Adams can be contacted at 621-5631 or at:
badams@centralmaine.com
Twitter: betadams
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