WATERVILLE — A November date has been set for the murder trial of Roland Cummings, a Waterville man charged with killing 92-year-old Aurele Fecteau last May.
Cummings, also of Waterville, remains in jail without bail on charges of murder, burglary and theft. The last time he appeared in court was June 24, when he waived his right to a Harnish hearing, which determines if a person accused of a capital crime should be held without bail.
The trial date has been scheduled for Nov. 12, said Tim Feeley, a spokesman for the Office of the Maine Attorney General.
Ron Bourget, an attorney for Cummings, said the bail hearing has been postponed until the case’s discovery period — in which evidence is shared between the defense and the prosecution — comes to a close.
“Right now the attorney general’s office is providing us with various police reports and investigation reports,” Bourget said Friday. “We’re in the process of reviewing it and should be reporting to the court shortly on the process.”
He said the large amount of information in the case has delayed the pre-trial process.
“We want to make sure we have all the materials in this case before we go to trial, so we’re still in the process,” he said. “The attorney general’s office is being cooperative, we just haven’t completed the process yet.”
Bourget would not comment on the specific findings in the police and investigative reports he has received.
Fecteau’s body was found at his 33 Brooklyn Ave. home in Waterville on May 23 — authorities believe it was three days after the killing — by his son, Ernest Fecteau, and his wife, who came to check on him. Fecteau was a 1940 graduate of Winslow High School and was survived by seven children.
An avid outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting and fishing with his sons, Fecteau worked for 40 years as a paper machine tender for Hollingsworth & Whitney and Scott Paper companies until his retirement.
Police said his home had been burglarized — pry marks were found on a back door and boxes of jewelry were found open, and items were missing. The pockets were turned out in three pairs of pants found on Fecteau’s floor, police said.
Cummings, who grew up in the Bingham and Waterville areas, was charged June 6 in connection with the killing. According to court documents, police matched DNA from the turned-out pockets of Fecteau’s pants to Cummings, who was said to have been an acquaintance of Fecteau’s and performed housework for him.
Cummings, who was 44 at the time of the murder, pleaded not guilty to the charges in an initial court appearance in July.
According to court documents, Cummings told authorities that his DNA was on Fecteau’s pants because he had robbed him of $2 that he found while rifling through a pair of Fecteau’s pants during a visit several weeks before the murder.
Cummings’ sister, Deborah Berry of Waterville, told the Morning Sentinel that her brother has been taking the prescription drug suboxone, which is prescribed to those with opiate addictions, and that he had struggled with drug addiction in recent years, including the use of bath salts. She said her brother’s “downfall” had started about three years ago, following the death of their father, and that he had been in a downward spiral after getting in with the wrong crowd.
Bourget said he recently visited his client at the Kennebec County jail in Augusta but could not comment on those meetings. Cummings is also being represented by attorney Darrick Banda.
“We are looking forward to aggressively defending his case in a trial and we’re hopeful we will be able to obtain a not guilty result,” Bourget said.
Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
Twitter: @rachel_ohm
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