BANGOR, Maine (AP) - A Black man was sentenced to 48 years for shooting a woman and leaving her lifeless body alongside a road in Maine’s first murder trial since the start of the pandemic.
Carine Reeves became angry over insults from the woman in a rental car he was driving, prompting him to stop, pull her from the vehicle and shoot her in the head in July 2017 in Cherryfield, prosecutors said.
Reeves, 40, of New York, maintained his innocence at his sentencing for murder on Tuesday. He said he was not present when Sally Shaw, was killed, the Bangor Daily New reported.
“I’m going to fight for my life,” Reeves told the judge. “Nobody’s looking to see who actually killed Sally Shaw. You aren’t seeking justice; you are seeking a conviction.”
Reeves intends to appeal.
Before the trial, Reeves told the judge that it would be prejudicial for him, as a Black man, to be forced to wear a mask in accordance with pandemic-related restrictions. His attorney said the mask could subject him to racial profiling and stereotyping by jurors who often associate masks with criminals.
Justice Harold Stewart II denied the motion and Reeves wore a mask along with everyone else in the courtroom.
At the start of the pandemic, Maine’s courts were closed except for emergency business. In-person trials with juries were delayed for months, and Reeves was tried in September.
Prosecutors said Reeves and Shaw were dealing drugs, and key testimony came from a third occupant of the car, Quaneysha Greeley, who testified about the shooting under a plea agreement.
Shaw’s daughter, Heather Senechiame, described her mother as a “fiery redhead who laughed as she had no care in the world.” She owned and operated a driving school in Gray.
“She fell into hard times and into a trap and the hands of a killer,” she said in a statement read by her son.
Reeves was extradited from New York to stand trial in Maine. He’s expected to be returned to New York to complete a sentence for crimes there before being returned to Maine to finish his sentence for murder.
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