The state will not retry a Limington man whose murder conviction was overturned after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court last year threw out the search of the victim’s property that led to the discovery of his body.
Bruce Akers was sentenced to 38 years in prison in November 2020 for murdering his neighbor, Douglas Flint, with whom he had been in a longstanding feud over property boundaries and whom he had accused of stealing a six-pack of alcohol.
It appears to be the first time in recent history that the Maine attorney general’s office, responsible for prosecuting all homicides in Maine, has not retried someone convicted of murder after the conviction was overturned.
Justices on Maine’s high court agreed with Akers’ assertion that York County sheriff’s deputies illegally searched his property when looking for Flint after Flint’s family reported him missing in June 2016.
The Maine attorney general’s office filed a notice of dismissal Monday at the York County courthouse.
“While we remain confident in the evidence that resulted in a guilty verdict, given the decision rendered by the Law Court, and the follow-up decision by Superior Court Justice [Wayne] Douglas, the state is left without sufficient evidence to proceed to trial and therefore has dismissed the charges against Mr. Akers.”
Douglas ruled earlier this month that the evidence obtained from the illegal search could not be used at a retrial.
Akers was released last week after being incarcerated since his arrest in 2016.
