ELLSWORTH, Maine — A Portland man accused of killing his girlfriend in Acadia National Park by running her over with his car pleaded not guilty Thursday to the alleged crime.
Raymond N. Lester, 36, is charged with murder for the death of Nicole Mokeme, 35, who was killed as she walked along a paved path at the Schoodic Education & Research Center near Winter Harbor. Lester is accused of running her over on the night of June 18, driving away and eventually fleeing to Mexico in an attempt to avoid arrest.
Lester was caught in Cancun, Mexico, on July 18. He made his first court appearance on the murder charge later that month and then was indicted in August.
On Thursday, Lester was arraigned on the murder indictment, entering a not-guilty plea via Zoom from the Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth. He was ordered to remain held without bail because of his previous attempt to escape arrest.
Lester is being represented by defense attorneys Steven Juskewitch and Tina Nadeau. The case is being prosecuted by Bud Ellis and Leanne Robbin of the Maine attorney general’s office.
According to a police affidavit filed in federal court when he was being sought by U.S. marshals, Lester had accompanied Mokeme while she was leading the Black Excellence Retreat at the former Navy base at Schoodic Point. Mokeme, a South Portland resident, was the founder of Rise And Shine Youth Retreat, a nonprofit group that sought to promote “the enrichment and liberation of Black people in Maine and beyond,” according to the group’s website.
On the evening of June 18, attendees were hanging out at a fire pit outside the center’s bunkhouse where they were staying while Lester sat nearby in his black 2016 BMW X3, according to the police affidavit.
“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,” police wrote in the document.
Other witnesses — none of whom saw Mokeme get run over — said it was Lester who was at the wheel in the vehicle.
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.
Pieces of black plastic that appeared to have fallen off a vehicle also were found around Mokeme’s body, according to the affidavit.
Lester had left the park, but police were able to use electronic license plate readers to determine the vehicle passed through Holden at 12:55 a.m. on June 19 and, in the days that followed, through Canton, Massachusetts; Georgia and then Texas.
The affidavit filed in federal court does not say how authorities found out that Lester was in Mexico, or whether his SUV also has been found since his arrest.
