AUGUSTA — An Augusta woman will spend three years in prison for taking a swing at a man with a hatchet last year.

Annmarie A. Meserve

Annmarie A. Meserve, 48, was sentenced to five years, with all but three suspended, after pleading guilty Friday to charges of domestic violence criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, domestic violence assault and violating conditions of release.

Meserve got into an argument with a man with whom she had a domestic relationship on Sept. 7, 2019 at a home in Augusta. When he emerged from a bathroom, she swung a hatchet at him, according to state prosecutor Assistant District Attorney Michael Madigan.

The man sustained a scratch or abrasion on his back. The man was bleeding when officers arrived, Madigan said.

Meserve said in court Friday she did not scratch the victim “… with the ax, I scratched him with my fingernails.”

Her attorney, Lisa Whittier, said the evidence suggested the scratch was more consistent with a fingernail than an ax.

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Justice Michaela Murphy said it didn’t matter how the scratch occurred because swinging at the man with a hatchet was enough to satisfy the charge of domestic violence assault.

Augusta police officers responding to the Mill Street incident found a hatchet in the grass.

Madigan said the victim “expressed extreme concern of her swinging the hatchet.”

In 2007, Meserve stabbed a man in the back with a steak knife during an altercation involving a number of people who were intoxicated. She spent five years in prison for that offense because she was on probation at the time for a stabbing that had occurred earlier that year in Cumberland County.

In August 2015, Meserve was sentenced to two years in prison on a charge of criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon after pleading guilty to threatening a woman with a knife.

She was charged with violating conditions of release for contacting the victim in the latest attack, in violation of the terms of her bail. An additional charge of violating conditions of release was dismissed.

She will be on probation for two years, and will be prohibited from using or possessing alcohol or illegal drugs, firearms or other dangerous weapons – Murphy noted that includes hatchets. She must submit to drug testing, have no contact with the victim and attend a certified batterers intervention program.

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