4-27-2006 Maine:
A homeless man whose body was found on fire beneath a Bangor bridge last month was the victim of a homicide, the state medical examiner said Thursday. Flames had enveloped the body of Trevor Sprague, 34, when he was found March 7 beneath a bridge where he went occasionally to drink alcohol. Initially, the medical examiner had withheld the cause of death at the request of prosecutors.
Authorities said it is too early to say whether the killing was a hate crime. "You don't want to jump to conclusions," Deputy Attorney General William Stokes said. "You don't want to make assumptions . . . that aren't warranted by the evidence and that may mislead you." Sprague's death raised concerns that he may have been targeted for his vulnerability as a homeless person with substance abuse and mental health problems or for his criminal history.
He was convicted last year for unlawful sexual contact with a 15-year-old boy and an assault stemming from the same incident. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, with all but five suspended. His probation was revoked Jan. 25 and he was ordered to serve the rest of his sentence. Sprague was twice convicted of indecent conduct in 2000, once for an incident near the bridge where his body was found, authorities said. ..more.. : by DAVID HENCH, Portland Press Herald Writer
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A year after man's burning body found: 'We'll get this one solved'
3-6-2007 Maine:
It’s a lonely, secluded spot.
Stand beneath the Harlow Street bridge on the banks of Kenduskeag Stream in Bangor and you can feel an eerie sense of emptiness, even as you hear the rhythm of cars and trucks crossing the metal grates overhead.
A year ago Wednesday, a passing driver spotted smoke that led to the burning body of 34-year-old Trevor Paul Sprague under the concrete-and-metal bridge downtown.
Sprague’s body was in flames when rescue crews arrived.
Police have determined that he was the victim of a homicide, but no one has been arrested in the case.
Authorities have disclosed few other facts, including whether the fire was the cause of Sprague’s death.
That the homicide remains unsolved after a year of investigation is frustrating for investigators as well as for Sprague’s friends and family.
"If you never had it happen, you can’t imagine" the pain, said Jeffery Sprague, 61, Trevor’s father, in a phone interview last week from his home in Machias. "It hasn’t been good. You think about it once in a while — quite often, actually, but you keep on going."
During last week’s telephone interview, Sprague said he was standing in his den with a picture of his murdered son in sight.
He said he immediately thought of his son a year ago when he read the Bangor Daily News story about the discovery of an unidentified burned body under a bridge.
"Knowing Trevor, it entered my mind," he said.
After Sprague put the newspaper down, a daughter who lives in Portland called to tell him about her brother.
"I guess that’s how everybody found out," he said.
Trevor Sprague’s body was burned so extensively that investigators had to use DNA from his father to positively identify him.
The horrifying circumstances of Trevor Sprague’s death jolted many in the city, especially homeless members of the community who knew him, said Mike Andrick, program director of the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter.
In the days after the discovery, people who monitor the area’s homeless made extra checks on people who sleep on the streets.
"[We’re] really like everyone else: We’re waiting patiently" for the crime to be solved, Andrick said recently.
Sprague’s death got groups and agencies that work with the homeless talking about how to address their problems, and it helped unify their efforts, Andrick said.
Beneath the bridge last week, past a low green steel beam, charred remains of paper products, food containers and old clothing could be seen, suggesting that somebody may have had a fire or two recently at the site to keep warm.
"It’s one of those cases that we just can’t get into a lot of the details," Lt. Tim Reid, who leads the Bangor Police Department’s detective division, said last week.
The department still gets new information and leads, Reid said.
Still, the transient nature of the city’s homeless people, who often have alcohol, drug or mental illness problems and are sometimes wary of police, is the biggest factor impeding the investigation, Reid said.
While Jeffery Sprague described his son as a friendly but sometimes reserved man who "wouldn’t hurt a flea," he acknowledged that his son showed signs of trouble.
Some of the homeless people his son associated with were a bad influence, he said.
"He drank quite a lot once he got in with that crowd," Sprague said.
He said he and other family members and friends often worried about his son’s safety.
"He’d say, ‘I’ll be all right. I’m a big guy,’" he said.
"He was just a friendly, easygoing guy," his father said. "Anyone who knew him — people at the [Bangor Area Homeless] Shelter would have told you that. If you didn’t know him, all you know is what you read in the paper."
Trevor Sprague suffered from mental health problems.
He was convicted of assault and unlawful sexual contact in 2005 after he improperly touched a teenage boy who was sitting in a park near the Bangor Public Library. He was convicted of two counts of indecent conduct in incidents that occurred in 2001, according to a prosecutor.
His mother, Sonia Olson of Lubec, was his legal guardian, his father said. She declined requests for an interview last week.
A month before his death, Trevor Sprague was at his father’s house in Machias.
Sometime after that, Trevor Sprague traveled to Bangor, then visited his mother in Florida before returning to Maine about a week and a half before he was killed, his father said.
From Florida he called his dad to talk about the weather, his favorite subject.
"He always wanted to tell you what the weather was," Jeffery Sprague said.
Asked why his son chose to live a transient lifestyle, his father said: "It was just Trevor. You had to know him. At Christmas dinner, he’d get up before the presents. He’d say, ‘I’ve got to go’ and off he’d go.
"I can’t really tell you why," his father said. "He always had a place to go, but he never stayed that long."
Lubec, a Washington County town, is like a closely knit sweater, and the death of Sprague hit the community hard, said family friend and Lubec resident Debra McConnell.
"We’re all linked together," she said. "Trevor was one of our children."
About 150 Lubec residents as well as people from Bangor joined Sprague’s family when his cremated remains were interred at Olson Cemetery in Lubec late last spring.
The bridge where Sprague’s body was found is one that recently retired Bangor Police Chief Don Winslow crossed numerous times — and minutes before the body’s discovery that March 2006 afternoon.
"I had just gotten on the highway when I heard the Fire Department call," Winslow said. "Fifteen minutes later, I got the call."
His department has pursued hundreds of leads in the past 12 months and will not stop until it can answer the question: Who killed Trevor Sprague?
"It is somewhat frustrating because it has been a year," Winslow said. "The longer it goes, the colder the case … and the more difficult it will be. I’m confident we’ll get this one solved eventually."
Winslow went to the Harlow Street bridge that evening a year ago, bending to get under the steel beam at the site that is inscribed with dates and people’s names. It includes the words of an old English law: "The rich as well as the poor are forbidden to sleep under bridges and steal bread." ..more.. by Bangor Daily News
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Burned man’s homicide still unsolved
3-7-2009 Maine:
Cold wind whips along the banks of Kenduskeag Stream in March, but beneath the low green steel beams of the Harlow Street Bridge, there is some refuge.
It’s underneath that downtown bridge that 34-year-old Trevor Paul Sprague, a homeless man from Lubec, was known to hang out and it also was where his body was found engulfed in flames three years ago Saturday.
A passing driver spotted smoke coming from underneath the concrete-and-metal bridge on March 7, 2006, and called the Fire Department. When crews arrived they found Sprague face-down with 2-foot-high flames shooting up off his 6-foot-7-inch body.
Sprague’s body was burned so extensively that investigators had to use DNA to positively identify him.
Police have determined that he was the victim of a homicide, but have disclosed few other facts about the grisly killing, including whether the fire was the cause of Sprague’s death.
Those facts are the key to finding the killer, Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said Thursday.
No one has been arrested in the case, but more than a dozen have confessed, he said.
“We’ve had quite a few people who say they did this, and it proved to be not true,” the sergeant said. “Only the person that did it and the officers involved” know the details behind how Sprague was killed.
“We do not know who did this,” Edwards said. “We’re waiting for the right tip, for the right evidence.”
The unsolved homicide remains frustrating for investigators, who continue to work the cold case, as well as for Sprague’s friends and family.
“It’s been hard,” family friend Debra McConnell said Thursday by phone from her Lubec home. “There is no closure.”
Sonia Olson of Lubec, Sprague’s mother and his legal guardian, declined to talk about her son on Friday, but exasperation could be heard in her voice.
“I don’t want to talk to anybody,” she said. “Bye.”
A month before his death, Trevor Sprague visited his father, Jeffery Sprague, in Machias, the elder Sprague said during an interview two years ago.
Sometime after that trip to Machias, Trevor Sprague traveled to Bangor, then visited his mother in Florida before returning to Maine about a week and a half before he was killed, said his father, who described his son as a friendly but sometimes reserved man who “wouldn’t hurt a flea.”
Asked why his son chose to live a transient lifestyle, his father said: “It was just Trevor. He always had a place to go, but he never stayed that long.”
Jeffery Sprague also acknowledged that his son showed signs of trouble, and said that some of the homeless people his son associated with were a bad influence.
“He drank quite a lot once he got in with that crowd,” he said.
Bangor Area Homeless Shelter officials have said that Sprague stayed at the shelter on occasion, but as a loner who liked his seclusion, and that he was known to stay under the Harlow Street and other bridges.
The slain man also suffered from mental health problems and had a criminal history that included his conviction for assault and unlawful sexual contact in 2005 after he improperly touched a teenage boy who was sitting in a park near the Bangor Public Library. Sprague also was convicted of two counts of indecent conduct in incidents that occurred in 2001, according to a prosecutor.
There are three other unresolved homicides on the books in Bangor — one in 1997, one in 1988 and one in 1965 — but with murder there is no statute of limitations, and all cold cases typically remain open until solved.
“It’s not forgotten, that’s for sure,” Edwards said of Sprague’s death. “We’ll continue to review it, and review it again and again.”
The transient nature of the city’s homeless people, who often have alcohol, drug or mental illness problems and are sometimes wary of police, has been listed as a factor impeding the 3-year-old investigation.
While the initial intensity of the investigation has slowed, Detective Brent Beaulieu is assigned to the case and “he continues to get leads,” Edwards said. “The file just keeps getting thicker and thicker.”
Investigators have pursued hundreds of leads over the last three years, but are still open to more, the sergeant said.
“We’ll take any rumors or information people have,” he said. “That’s what we do. It’s a big puzzle. We’re just waiting for the right piece” to complete the puzzle and find the killer.
About 150 Lubec residents as well as people from Bangor joined Sprague’s family when his cremated remains were interred at Olson Cemetery in Lubec in the spring of 2006.
In Lubec, a small Washington County town, everybody knows everybody else and “Trevor was one of our children,” McConnell has said. The horrifying circumstances behind his death hit the community hard, she said.
“We’re all still very sad,” she said. ..News Source.. by Nok-Noi Ricker, BDN Staff BANGOR, Maine
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Bangor Police Release New Info On Cold Case Homicide
3-8-2009 Maine:
BANGOR (NEWS CENTER) -- Three years after the body of a homeless man from Lubec was found burning beneath a bridge in Bangor -- police are releasing new facts about the case.
Fire crews arrived at the scene on March 7, 2006 to find 2-foot flames shooting up from the body of 34-year old Trevor Paul Sprague.
Sprague's body was burned so badly investigators had to use DNA to positively identify him.
Although the case has been declared a homicide, police haven't yet determined whether the fire was the cause of Sprague's death.
At this point - no arrests have been made, though Sgt. Paul Edwards says more than a dozen people have confessed to the killing. None of the confessions have turned out to be true.
Many still question, whether Sprague's death was part of a hate crime. Sprague was openly gay and a convicted sex offender. ..News Source.. by Amanda Hill
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Man pleads not guilty to setting transient on fire 5 years ago
6-22-2011 Maine:
BANGOR, Maine — The South Dakota inmate charged with setting a homeless man on fire along the Kenduskeag Stream more than five years ago pleaded not guilty to intentional or knowing murder Wednesday morning at the Penobscot Judicial Center.
Kenneth John Bruning, 25, of Rapid City, S.D., is charged in the death of Trevor Sprague, 34, of Lubec in March 2006.
A trial date has not been set.
Sprague’s mother, Sonia Olson, and her husband, George Olson, both of Lubec, attended the arraignment but declined to speak to reporters.
Bruning, a South Dakota native and member of the Lakota Indian tribe, waived a bail hearing.
Last month he waived extradition from South Dakota, where he was serving a two-year sentence for burglary and possession of methamphetamine, according to his attorney, Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor.
The time he is held at the Penobscot County Jail awaiting trial on the murder charge will be credited toward his South Dakota sentence, Silverstein said outside the courthouse after the arraignment.
Silverstein said his client may have mental health problems and it was possible Bruning’s plea would be changed to not criminally responsible by reason of insanity.
“Mr. Bruning has not made any admission or confession,” the attorney told reporters. “I understand there may be forensic evidence that indicates he was at the scene [of Sprague’s death].”
Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson declined Wednesday to comment on the case.
Although police have not said what led them to Bruning, it appears that once convicted of a felony in South Dakota, his DNA was placed in a national database. It’s possible that DNA from the crime scene in Maine matched Bruning’s DNA once it was in the database.
Maine collects DNA from individuals convicted of felonies but not misdemeanors.
In October 2009 in Bangor District Court, Bruning was convicted of a misdemeanor assault that occurred at what is now the Hope House, a homeless shelter near the University of Maine at Augusta, Bangor campus. The assault took place two weeks after Sprague’s death, according to previously published reports.
In addition to the murder charge, Bruning is facing a local charge of failure to pay the for fine the assault.
Bruning was returned to Maine late Friday night and taken to the Penobscot County Jail by two Bangor police detectives.
Sprague’s body was found face down and on fire under the Harlow Street Bridge on March 7, 2006. The 34-year-old Lubec native and Bangor transient was known to camp along the Kenduskeag Stream.
Details about the circumstances surrounding Sprague’s death and what led investigators to Bruning have not been released.
Bangor police confirmed last year that Bruning was a member of Bangor’s transient population when Sprague was killed. ..Source.. by Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
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Maine trials worth watching in 2012
1-6-2012 Maine:
State v. Kenneth Bruning
Trevor Sprague’s death was on the list of unsolved homicides for nearly five years before Kenneth John Bruning, 26, of Rapid City, S.D., was charged in November 2010 in connection with the death. Sprague’s body was found face down and on fire under the Harlow Street Bridge in Bangor on March 7, 2006. The 34-year-old Lubec native and Bangor transient was known to camp along the Kenduskeag Stream. Police have not released information about how the two men might have known each other or what led investigators to Bruning, who was serving a sentence in a South Dakota prison when he was arrested. He was returned to Maine in June 2011. In most cases, the circumstances surrounding the crime and the investigation have been made public. Bruning’s trial, which has not been set but could be held as early as July at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor, finally may reveal what happened to Sprague. ..Source.. by Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
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Man gets seven years for killing homeless man (Former Sex Offender) in Bangor
6-10-2012 Maine:
BANGOR, Maine — The South Dakota man charged with slaying and setting ablaze a local homeless man camping along the Kenduskeag Stream six years ago was sentenced Friday at the Penobscot Judicial Center to 15 years with all but seven years suspended for manslaughter.
Kenneth John Bruning, 26, of Rapid City, S.D., also was sentenced to four years of probation in the death of Trevor Sprague, 34, who was homeless at the time of his death.
In exchange for pleading guilty to manslaughter, the murder charge against Bruning was dismissed.
Bangor police confirmed last year that Bruning also was a member of Bangor’s transient population when Sprague was killed.
Information about how Sprague died was made public for the first time during Friday’s 45-minute hearing before Superior Court Justice William Anderson.
The Lubec native died of strangulation and then was set on fire, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson said. The prosecutor said that DNA obtained from blood found on one of Sprague’s shoes matched a sample of DNA taken from Bruning. DNA from droplets found in a trail of blood that led from the scene toward the Intown Plaza at the intersection of Kenduskeag Avenue and Harlow Street also matched Bruning’s DNA.
Although Benson said that Bruning’s DNA was matched to DNA from blood found at the crime scene in 2010, it appears that Bruning’s DNA was not entered into a national FBI database until after he was convicted of a felony in South Dakota.
He was serving a two-year sentence for burglary and possession of methamphetamine in South Dakota when he was interviewed by Bangor police in summer 2010. He admitted knowing Sprague but denied harming him, Benson said.
Bruning was indicted in November 2010 by the Penobscot County grand jury for murder. He was returned to Maine the following June and pleaded not guilty to the charge.
On Friday, Bruning waived indictment, pleaded guilty to what is called an information and entered an Alford plea, named for the U.S. Supreme Court case North Carolina v. Alford decided in 1970. It is “a guilty plea that a defendant enters as part of a plea bargain, without actually admitting guilt,” according to Black’s Law Dictionary.
The defendant did not address the judge but the victim’s younger sister, Terry did. Struggling to control her emotions, she cried as she read a statement she said was the result of many drafts.
In one, she criticized the defendant “because he does not have the courage to take responsibility for my brother’s death and plead guilty to murder. But I decided that the amount of time he serves will not bring my brother back.
“I hope he understands what he did wrong and regrets the pain he has caused me, my family and his own,” she said. “I hope the defendant makes changes in his life and takes advantage of this tremendous opportunity he’s been granted and turns his life around.”
By pleading guilty to the lesser charge, Bruning admitted that with the evidence the state had, a jury could find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of manslaughter. He did not, however, admit that he killed Sprague or set him on fire.
Sprague’s body was found face down and on fire under the Harlow Street Bridge on March 7, 2006. The Lubec native and Bangor transient was known to camp along the Kenduskeag Stream.
Bruning’s trial on the murder charge had been scheduled to begin July 30 at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor.
Both Benson and defense attorney Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor told Anderson that they worked out the plea agreement to avoid going to trial and risking a verdict in the other side’s favor. The judge accepted the plea agreement and imposed the recommended sentence but called Sprague’s death “a horrendous and horrible crime.”
If convicted of murder, Bruning would have faced a sentence of between 25 years and life. The maximum sentence for a manslaughter conviction is 30 years.
In October 2009 in Bangor District Court, Bruning was convicted of a misdemeanor assault that occurred at what is now the Hope House, a homeless shelter near the University of Maine at Augusta, Bangor campus. The assault took place two weeks after Sprague’s death, according to previously published reports.
In addition to the murder charge, Bruning faced a local charge of failure to pay the fine for the assault.
Anderson said he would have to pay those fines while on probation for the manslaughter charge.
He has been held without bail at the Penobscot County Jail since being returned to Maine from South Dakota nearly a year ago. That time is expected to be credited to his manslaughter sentence. ..Source.. by Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
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