Maine’s top court has rejected an appeal by a Fairfield man convicted of murdering his wife in 2016.
A jury took less than an hour to find Luc Tieman guilty last year. His wife, 34-year-old Valerie Tieman, was shot twice in the head and neck. Investigators found her body buried behind her husband’s parents’ home in Fairfield. The items in the grave included a note that began “To my one and only Joy-Joy. Flower. Forever.” It included an apparent reference to his pet name “Luc-e the Bear” or “Luc-e Da Bear.”
Tieman, 35, appealed his conviction to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. His attorney contended that Facebook messages from Valerie Tieman’s account should not have been admitted at Luc Tieman’s trial. The majority of the debate at oral arguments last month centered on a series of Facebook messages between the victim and a woman who told her that Tieman was having an affair.
The justices decided the lower court did not err in admitting the messages, and the rest of the evidence was enough for a jury to find him guilty of murder.
Valerie Tieman Morning Sentinel file photo
“Contrary to Tieman’s contentions, there is ample evidence in the record – including but not limited to the above-referenced evidence – from which the jury rationally could have found every element of knowing or intentional murder proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” Justice Joseph Jabar wrote in the unanimous decision.
After the trial last April, Superior Court Justice Robert Mullen sentenced Luc Tieman to 55 years in prison. He is currently incarcerated at the Maine State Prison in Warren.
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