The man accused of killing his girlfriend in a hit-and-run in Acadia National Park last month has been returned to Maine.
Raymond Lester, who has been charged with murder in the death of 35-year-old Nicole Mokeme of South Portland, was taken to the Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth, according to Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Lester, 35, allegedly struck Mokeme with his 2016 black BMW X3 SUV with the license plate 5614WM sometime between the night of June 18 and the early morning of June 19 at the Schoodic Education and Research Center campus in Winter Harbor.
He had been in a three-year relationship with Mokeme, an activist who was organizing a retreat for Black Mainers in Winter Harbor when she died.
On the evening of June 18, attendees were hanging out at a fire pit outside the bunkhouse where they were staying while Lester sat nearby in his SUV, according to a police affidavit filed in court.
“Though it was dark and they could not see who the driver was beyond the fact that he was male, they observed the driver making ‘shooting’ gestures with his fingers toward the group,” according to the affidavit.
Other witnesses — none of whom saw Mokeme get run over — said it was Lester who was at the wheel in the vehicle, a black BMW X3.
One witness told police that Lester said Mokeme “doesn’t like me anymore.” Another said that when the group had dinner on June 18, that Raymond “behaved appallingly,” was “hammered” from over-drinking, “seemed pissed off, and was driving fast in the area with a bottle of vodka.”
Mokeme’s body was found at 6:20 a.m. June 19 on a paved walking path on the Schoodic campus, according to the affidavit. Police found tire tracks leading from a nearby parking lot, across a road and between two trees onto the walking path where Mokeme was found.
It’s the first homicide in Acadia National Park in 35 years.
After a nationwide manhunt, Lester was arrested last week in Cancun, Mexico.
Lester has a history of domestic violence, including four convictions for domestic violence assault and a fifth for violating a protection from abuse order from 2008 to 2011.
Lester was scheduled to appear in Hancock County Superior Court at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
