Litchfield murder plea agreement could mean prison for teen

AUGUSTA — Lukas Mironovas, one of three teenagers accused of killing his mother, Kimberly Mironovas, in Litchfield last year, waived his right to argue that he should be tried as a juvenile as part of a plea agreement with state prosecutors.

As a result of the agreement, Mironovas is expected to plead guilty to murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges, and serve between 25 and 35 years in prison in indicted.

The 16-year-old waived his right to a bind over hearing in a court hearing early Wednesday morning, a process that would determine whether he would be treated via the juvenile or adult justice system as he faces murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges made against him.

That means his case would be handled as if he were an adult and be forwarded to a grand jury.

His attorney, Pamela Ames, and state prosecutors have reached an agreement in which if Mironovas is indicted by the grand jury, he would plead guilty charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Ames said Mironovas is sure to be indicted, based upon the preponderance of evidence, and she anticipated that could take place as soon as Thursday, when a Kennebec County grand jury is expected to sit.

Assistant Attorney General Meg Elam said the state agreed, if Mironovas pleads guilty, to cap his sentence at 35 years, meaning he would serve at least the minimum sentence of 25 years, but no more than 35.

Ames said she plans to argue for less than 35 years.

She said the evidence in the case, especially once her motion to have Mironovas’ confession to police suppressed was denied by District Court Judge Eric Walker, was overwhelming and Mironovas is accepting responsibility for his role in the murder of his mother.

“He’s now 16 years old and facing a mandatory minimum of 25 years of his life, and he recognizes that and he’s accepting responsibility for whatever he did and is extremely remorseful for his conduct,” Ames said. “He’s doing everything he can at Long Creek to get a high school education, and to get counseling, so he can be a productive member of society at some point.”

Ames said she sought to have Mironovas’ confession to police suppressed because he had agreed to waive his Miranda rights and be interviewed by police, without his father present, and a doctor’s report indicated he was not able to intellectually and knowingly waive those rights because he didn’t understand what he was doing due to a combination of his lack of education and maturity and the stressors he was under at the time.

Walker questioned Mironovas about whether he understood what he was agreeing to Wednesday, whether he thought the agreement and waiving his bind over rights was in his best interest, and whether he had been well-represented by his attorney, to all of which he answered “yes.” The 16-year-old Mironovas, wearing a white sweatshirt and khakis, also said he did not wish to correct anything in a summary, by Elam, of the crimes he is alleged to have committed.

On April 22, 2018, the three teenagers — Lukas Mironovas, then 15, William Smith, then 15, and Thomas “TJ” Severance, then 13 — allegedly killed 47-year-old Kimberly Mironovas in part because they were mad at her for accusing them of stealing her marijuana the previous night.

Elam said Wednesday Lukas Mironovas and Smith choked Kimberly Mironovas, and Lukas then stabbed his mother in her upstairs bedroom multiple times, while Severance remained downstairs and watched the family dog. A state medical examiner deemed the cause of death as both strangulation and stabbing.

Mironovas family members at Wednesday’s court hearing declined to comment.

Ames said what happened is heart wrenching for them.

Severance, 14, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced, as part of a plea agreement reached with the state, to be committed to Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland, where he’ll be held until he is 21-years-old, the maximum sentence for a juvenile.

A district court ruled in July that Smith, 16, following his bind over hearing, could be prosecuted as an adult. In August, Smith was indicted on murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges and he now faces a trial unless he, too, reaches a plea agreement with the state.

Elam, asked by Walker to summarize the state’s case against Mironovas, said the three teens, who became friends when all three lived in Ashland, Massachusetts, were together at the Mironovas’ Litchfield home because Kimberly picked the two other boys up in Massachusetts to come visit.

While Kimberly Mironovas came home from school — she was studying at Aveda Institute Maine in Augusta — she discovered the boys had stolen some of her marijuana, and became mad at them and said she wouldn’t give them a ride back to Massachusetts.

The next day the boys discussed what they should do and Smith suggested they should kill Kimberly Mironovas, Elam said. They discussed crushing her prescription pills and putting it in her wine to make her lose consciousness, then cutting her wrists to make it look like suicide. They later rejected that idea out of concern the pills wouldn’t dissolve enough.

Eventually, Elam said, they considered three options: Let her live, steal her car and leave; choke her to death; or choke her to death until she was unconscious and then stab her in the throat.

“They ultimately chose the third option,” Elam said.

Kimberly went to bed just after midnight, and Smith and Lukas Mironovas went up to her bedroom about 15 minutes later, while Severance, who had expressed reservations about their plan, stayed downstairs.

Smith and Mironovas put on gloves, and Mironovas also put on a mask. Elam said Smith and Lukas Mironovas choked Kimberly, and Lukas also held his hand over her mouth, causing her to lose consciousness.

“As she laid unconscious, Lukas Mironovas stabbed his mother multiple times,” Elam said.

Witnesses in Smith’s bind over hearing testified that he told them he started to choke Kimberly Mironovas but couldn’t go through with it and stopped.

Elam said the boys concocted a story, which all three initially stuck to when first questioned by police, that an intruder had entered the home and killed Kimberly Mironovas.

However all three later, under questioning from police, came clean about what they had done.

Ames said Mironovas — if indicted, and he pleads guilty and is sentenced to prison time — would continue to serve his time at Long Creek until he reaches the age of 18, when he’d be transferred to an adult prison.