Four suspects held on murder charges
Maryland police stop vehicle on I-95
Publication: Portland Press Herald
By Dennis Hoey and Larry David Hansen
Staff Writers
WASHINGTON, Maine – Four Maine men were arrested in Maryland Monday, and later charged with murder in the shooting death of a 31-year-old Knox County man found beside a road here Sunday night, according to Maine State Police.
David M. Turner, 31, of Portland; Gerald F. Rolerson, 31, of Appleton; and Joe J. Bowman, 28, and Charles W. Novinsky, 28, both of Washington, were charged with the murder of Randall S. Lind, 31, of Washington, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine State Police.
Lind was found by a passer-by alongside North Union Road in Washington at about 7 p.m. Sunday. Death was caused by a single gunshot wound, according to McCausland.
Sgt. Jim Joyce said Maryland State Police apprehended the four men at a tollbooth on Interstate 95 near Perryville, Md., at 8:06 a.m. Monday, after Maine State Police issued an arrest warrant in connection with the shooting death of Lind.
McCausland would not reveal the evidence that led to the arrest, or any possible motive for the shooting. “We have some pretty good ideas, but I can’t say what they are,” he said.
The four suspects will be held at the Maryland State Police barracks in Perryville until an extradition hearing is held. Arraignment will take place sometime this week, McCausland said.
Two Maine State Police detectives who flew to Maryland in a private jet to question the suspects returned Monday night, McCausland said.
The arrests came 13 hours after Lind’s body was first discovered along the rural road on the outskirts of Washington, located 20 miles from Augusta and 23 miles from Camden.
Originally, the passer-by who found Lind’s body reported the incident to police as a hit-and-run accident, but state police investigators who arrived on the scene discovered that Lind had been shot.
McCausland would not say where the bullet entered the body. State Medical Examiner Dr. Henry Ryan determined that Lind died from one gunshot wound, after performing an autopsy on the body Monday morning at the Kennebec Valley Medical Center in Augusta, McCausland said.
McCausland said police gathered evidence that led them to believe the men were involved in the shooting death, but would not reveal the nature of that evidence. He said police investigators determined that four men traveling in a 1977 blue Oldsmobile Cutlass should be stopped for questioning regarding Lind’s death.
An all-points bulletin for the four men was issued Sunday night to police departments along the Eastern Seaboard, because the men were believed to be headed to Florida or Connecticut, according to McCausland and Joyce.
About 90 minutes after the shooting was reported, the men were seen in Portland driving a car with Maine license plates, police reported.
Maryland State Police Trooper Michael Ey spotted the vehicle at about 8 a.m. Monday traveling south on Interstate 95. Ey had positioned his cruiser in a service area along the highway for the “specific purpose” of keeping an eye out for the vehicle, McCausland said.
McCausland said that Ey trailed the car for about three miles, during which time he radioed ahead for backup help. Three state troopers apprehended the men, who “offered no resistance,” at the Maryland toll plaza about 10 miles from the Delaware/Maryland border, Joyce said.
Police recovered a single weapon from the vehicle, but McCausland would not identify the type of weapon.
Assistant Attorney General Michael Westcott, who was handling the murder investigation for the attorney general’s office, was unavailable for comment Monday night.
Washington Selectman Bob Lee said Lind worked at “odd jobs” and lived in a trailer home on the outskirts of town. Lee said Lind was recently married.
Lee said the shooting death left residents of Washington, population 1,024, in shock.
“We’re a small, rural community. This kind of thing just doesn’t happen here,” Lee said. “It’s terrible.”