The Maine State Prison inmate charged with murder Tuesday for allegedly stabbing another prisoner 87 times told an investigator that he’s not crazy and wants to be held accountable for his actions.
Richard Stahursky said he attacked Micah Boland on Friday with two makeshift knives because he blamed Boland for the loss of his prison job as a “hallway worker” 10 days earlier, saying Boland had “ratted on him” by accusing him of moving items, according to a Maine State Police affidavit.
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“Am I guilty of this, yeah absolutely,” he is quoted as saying in the affidavit, adding that he might have overreacted in killing Boland. “I get stupid sometimes when I have a knife in my hand.”
The affidavit was filed in Knox County Superior Court in Rockland on Tuesday in support of a murder charge against Stahursky, 35, who is scheduled to make an initial court appearance at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Boland was one of five names on a list police found in Stahursky’s cell after the killing Friday afternoon at the state prison in Warren. Of the five names – the others of which police did not release – Boland’s was crossed out, according to the affidavit prepared by state police Detective Jason Andrews. The list was hidden in the false bottom of a Noxzema container.
Boland, 37, had served six years of a 22-year sentence for gross sexual assault of a 4-year-old girl in 2007 and was the first person sentenced in Maine under the enhanced sentencing guidelines under Jessica’s Law, for people who sexually assault children under 12. Boland’s cell was not separated from other inmates.
Police also found in Stahursky’s cell sealed letters to members of the staff, although the affidavit did not discuss their contents.
Stahursky, also known as Richard Clements, insisted in his interview with Andrews that Boland had “set him up” and that he had asked the prison to conduct an investigation. He said he had grown increasingly angry about the situation and was losing sleep. He also said he had stopped taking his mood stabilizing medication.
Prison jobs are desirable because inmates can earn money and have time shaved off their sentences, as well as stay busy.
Stahursky has a long criminal history, much of it incidents inside the state prison. In 2011, he punched a corrections officer three times in the face and was sentenced to eight additional years for assault on an officer. He was originally sentenced in 2002 for burglary and theft but since then has had multiple convictions for trafficking in prison contraband and serious assaults, as well as an arson conviction.
On Friday, Corrections Officer Kaycee Edwards was stationed in B pod at the Maine State Prison, the state’s 916-bed facility for maximum and medium security inmates. She told Andrews she saw Stahursky throughout the day because he stayed in the pod to clean and fold laundry while others went to their prison industry jobs. The affidavit does not describe the duties of a hallway worker, but Stahursky apparently got a job cleaning the pod after he lost the hallway job.
There was no hint of the violent encounter to come, Edwards said.
At about 4 p.m., Stahursky went to Boland’s cell and found him there alone. Stahursky is 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 183 pounds, while Boland was 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed 199 pounds.
Stahursky was armed with two makeshift knives, called “shivs” in prison parlance, and told Andrews he had not yet decided whether to stab Boland. It is not clear where he acquired the knives.
Maine State Prison Warden Rod Bouffard wouldn’t speak about the Stahursky case but said another inmate had been caught two weeks earlier trying to make a shiv out of a piece of iron from his metal bed frame.
Stahursky told Andrews that Boland met him at the door, where he confronted him about the loss of the prison job. Stahursky then punched Boland in the head, knocking him to the ground and apparently knocking him unconscious, he told Andrews. He then closed the cell door behind him and tied Boland’s hands.
He kicked Boland repeatedly in the ribs and when Boland kicked him and called him a derogatory name, Stahursky told Andrews, “I snapped!” according to the affidavit.
Stahursky described pushing Boland onto the bed and stabbing him in the face and neck, although he said he couldn’t remember how many times or whether he used both knives. He said he then blacked out.
Boland tried to kick and grab him even though his hands were tied, Stahursky said.
Stahursky said he didn’t intend to kill Boland.
According to the affidavit, he took off his bloody sweatshirt and shirt and covered the window of the cell door with a privacy shade so nobody could see in. It’s not clear how long he was in the room.
“Do I regret it, no!” he told Andrews. He said he wanted to hurt Boland to make a statement, and knew what he was doing but “apparently I overdid it.”
“When asked, Richard told me that he wasn’t ‘mental.’ He said that the staff might say that about him, but he wasn’t,” Andrews said in the affidavit. “He stated: ‘We’re not going the insanity plea.’”
Edwards said she was working at her desk in the pod when Stahursky appeared shirtless and holding a shiv in each hand, both bloodied. He dropped the weapons on her desk when ordered to, and said he needed to be handcuffed.
Edwards did not know of any specific previous conflicts between Stahursky and Boland, but said Stahursky was very opinionated and constantly talked about how much he hated child sex offenders.
Despite the efforts of two nurses who tried to resuscitate Boland, he was pronounced dead at 4:39 p.m.
Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Mark Flomenbaum determined that Boland died of “multiple stab wounds of face, neck, and torso with extensive hemorrhage and blunt impact of head with bone fractures and brain injury.” He also said Boland had 87 individual stab wounds and was “hog tied,” according to a series of email exchanges between authorities that was inadvertently attached to a press release issued Tuesday announcing the murder charge.
Stahursky said he hadn’t told anyone of his plan, including his own cellmate, because his uncle, who also is a prisoner there, would have heard about it and beaten him up.
He is currently being held in isolation pending his court appearance.
David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
Twitter: @Mainehenchman
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