Lorenze A. Labonte at a November 2023 Zoom hearing in York County Superior Court. Screenshot via Zoom

A lawyer for a man being held at Maine State Prison before trial on a murder charge says the facility is violating his client’s rights by severely limiting his ability to make phone calls.

Lorenze Labonte, 26, has been charged with one count of knowing intentional murder in connection with the shooting of Ahmed Sharif. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in June. He also faces charges for having a gun as a prohibited person and witness tampering after prosecutors said he made repeated calls to witnesses from the York County Jail.

Labonte was arrested last November and was being held at the York County Jail before he was moved to the state prison this summer.

It’s unclear why he was moved. The sheriff overseeing the jail did not respond to an email Tuesday seeking an explanation. Labonte’s attorney Verne Paradie said he never received an official reason and only learned of the transfer after Labonte called him from prison.

Paradie said during a hearing Tuesday in York County Superior Court via Zoom that the prison has curtailed Labonte’s ability to make phone calls. Paradie said he sent the prison a notice of claims under the Maine Tort Claims Act, which could lead to a lawsuit.

A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Corrections declined to discuss the claims or to explain what restrictions are in place against Labonte, saying information about individual residents is confidential under state law.

“However, as a general matter, the Maine Department of Corrections takes great care to ensure that residents of our system are treated fairly, kept safe, and provided services in a manner that is consistent with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” spokesperson Sam Prawer wrote in an email.

Paradie said in court Tuesday that he and his client have only had “sporadic” contact since the transfer, “and I think the prison’s restrictions on his phone calls are violating his First Amendment rights.”

The hearing was supposed to focus on a motion prosecutors filed in September asking Superior Court Justice James Martemucci for help enforcing various no-contact orders between Labonte and eight other people, including his mother, his two younger sisters, an uncle and people who identified him as a shooter to police.

One sister, 18-year-old Ariana Tito, is facing an attempted murder charge for allegedly shooting Labonte’s girlfriend days after police say he killed Sharif. Tito pleaded not guilty earlier this year.

Labonte’s uncle Garret Labonte was arrested last week and charged with murder in the unrelated September shooting of Gene Dares. He is being held at the York County Jail.

Prosecutors argued in February that Labonte had a history of tampering with witnesses from jail, even playing recordings of calls in which they said Labonte was manipulating his girlfriend at the time.

But Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Ackerman said Tuesday that she was withdrawing the state’s motion now that Labonte’s calls have been restricted. She and Martemucci said that the prison acted alone and that they did not request that Labonte’s access to phones be completely revoked.

Martemucci said he won’t ask the prison to reconsider any restrictions on Labonte, which he’s “not sure if (he) has the authority to do that right now.”