The trial of an Edgecomb man charged in the Christmas Day 2022 death of 3-year-old Makinzlee Handrahan came to sudden halt in Lincoln County Superior Court Wednesday, Dec. 11 following an emotional courtroom outburst by the victim’s mother.
Testifying against her former live-in boyfriend, Tyler Witham-Jordan, Faith Lewis, 32, of Edgecomb, experienced an emotional reaction when presented with an autopsy photo of her deceased daughter. Sobbing and collapsing into the witness stand, Lewis tearfully pleaded with prosecutors to take the photo down.
Calling Lewis’ reaction one of the most extreme he has seen in his judicial career, Lincoln County Superior Court Justice Dan Billings declared a mistrial with prejudice, expressing the opinion he did not feel the jurors would be able to set aside the emotional impact of seeing and hearing Lewis’s breakdown.
“I’ve been doing this job a long time now,” Billings said. “I’ve been a judge over 12 years. I have been on superior court for 10 years and I have seen a lot of things in the courtroom. I’ve seen a lot of things in front of juries. I have never seen a witness react in the extreme way that Miss Lewis did here in the courtroom. I don’t believe that bell can be unrung.”
Witham-Jordan, 30, of Edgecomb and Livermore Falls, is charged with intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder as a result of Handrahan’s death. Emergency medical services were first called to the home Handrahan shared with her mother, two half-siblings, and Witham-Jordan off Route 1 in Edgecomb after the 3-year-old was discovered unresponsive in her bed before 7:37 a.m. Dec. 25, 2022.
The state’s deputy chief medical examiner subsequently determined Handrahan’s cause of death was homicide due to blunt force trauma.
On Dec. 11, as an emotional Lewis was being attended to near the witness stands, Billings ordered the jurors removed. Due to the layout of the courtroom, the exiting jurors passed within a few feet of Lewis. Later as Lewis was being attended to in the hall outside of the jury room, Billings said from bench he could hear those activities in his chambers and speculated the jury could as well.
With the jury excused, the defense immediately moved for a mistrial with prejudice and accused Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Ackerman of prosecutorial misconduct for showing Lewis the photo.
In a tense back and forth with Billings, Ackerman strongly defended herself saying she presented the picture to prompt testimony regarding a bald spot on Handrahan’s head. She pointed out the picture had been admitted into evidence and was previously shown to the jury. The prosecution contends a clump of hair found tangled in a broken hairbrush in the upstairs bathroom was pulled from Handrahan’s head.
Ackerman reminded the judge she had told Lewis she was going to show Lewis a picture, and Lewis had said she was willing to see it. Ackerman said any accusation she was trying to upset was spurious.
“I am very aware of the emotional nature of those photos,” Ackerman said. “We talked about that at length during voir dire over and over. But I did what I could to prepare her. I did not know she was going to react that way.”
Following the mistrial declaration, Assistant Attorneys General Lisa Bogue and Ackerman did not offer comment to the media. In a statement issued Friday, Dec. 13, Special Assistant to the Attorney General Danna Hayes indicated the state currently plans to retry the case.
“The prosecution team is fully prepared to retry the case and expects to have a conference shortly to determine a future trial date, but nothing has been scheduled at this time,” Hayes said via email.
Witham-Jordan’s defense team said they felt the Billings made the appropriate decision. Defense attorney Paul Corey said the defense tried to brainstorm a “curative” instruction the judge could have given the jury to account for the experience but in the end instruction would not suffice.
Corey said Billings’ decision and his analysis of the situation, which Billings explained in detail from the bench, exhibited the strength of the American judicial system.
“It doesn’t get talked about enough, but it’s really the integrity of the judicial process that the judge was upholding,” Corey said. “In the grand scheme of things, that’s how the American justice system is supposed to work. So although we thought the evidence was coming in well, and we believe strongly in our defense that we’ve articulated; we stick by that; we think the judge got it right.”
Prior to Billings’ ruling, the jurors heard from law enforcement personnel, EMS providers, and friends of Handrahan and her mother.
In opening statement Dec. 6, Bogue said the state intends to prove Witham-Jordan inflicted the fatal injuries on Handrahan while he was suffering from opioid withdrawal.
Witham-Jordan’s defense team told the jury there is no evidence that proves Witham-Jordan’s guilt and suggested Lewis is a likely suspect.
Opening statements were followed by testimony from Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service personnel, members of the Maine State Police Evidence Response Team, and Lincoln County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kevin Dennison, who testified as to the conditions in the Edgecomb upon their arrival
Denison was followed to the stand by two men who separately testified they sold Witham-Jordan drugs on Christmas Eve 2022 and both admitted they were testifying in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
On Dec. 10, a child who lives in the apartment complex testified they played with two children inside the Witham-Jordan apartment during the afternoon, and played again, later, outside Dec. 24, 2022. The child testified they were told Makinzlee Handrahan was upstairs sleeping because she didn’t feel well.
Testimony ended Dec. 10 with Jessica Russ, who described Lewis as her best friend. Russ testified she met Handrahan when the child was about three months old and thereafter saw the child on a near daily basis.
“She was smart and she was funny and she just had the most bubbly attitude you have ever seen in your life,” Russ said. “She was amazing.”
