Opening arguments in the double murder trial of John A. Okie, of Newcastle, were held Dec. 8 at the Kennebec County Courthouse in Augusta.
Okie stands accused of the July 10, 2007 murder of Alexandra Mills, 19, in Wayne, Maine. He is also accused of killing his father, John S. Okie, 59, in Newcastle on July 16.
He was arrested the following day, and has been held at Kennebec County Jail since. Okie pleaded not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease to both charges.
The trial was held in the ornate large courtroom in the Kennebec County Courthouse. The wooden rear benches were crowded with people, including almost a dozen journalists taking notes. Several television cameras were present, but left before the trial began. Superior Court Justice Joseph Jabar presided over the courtroom.
Jury selection finished Friday, with eight women and six men chosen. As they filed into the courtroom, the whispers and murmurs in the audience died down. The proceedings began just after 8:30 a.m. last Monday.
Jabar advised the jury to take into account the evidence only, and not consider the opening or closing statements as evidence. He explained since this was a murder trial, the prosecutor did not need to prove motive or premeditation.
Before opening arguments began, Jabar met with both parties on the sidebar. That left John A. Okie sitting by himself at the defendant’s table. He looked crisp, with a clean, short haircut and a freshly pressed, light blue button-down shirt.
The prosecutors are Andrew Benson and Lisa Marchese, both Assistant Attorney Generals specializing in homicide cases.
Benson set-up his opening argument by placing the jury outside the house where the proposed scenario between Okie and Mills was unfolding. He referred to Okie always by his full name.
His opening argument was full of the brutal details of the alleged murders. He began describing the crimes, first explaining noise of a fight or argument coming from the back ell of the house.
Benson didn’t leave out a single chilling detail of what prosecutors believe happened that night. Benson noted that as Okie and Mills argued, she was partially clothed, and bleeding from her face. He described Mills rushing down the stairs, slamming into the railing and collapsing on the floor.
He punctuated his discussion of the savage attack with exaggerated beating and stabbing hand motions. He stated Okie then went around the room wiping off fingerprints, and made sure to grab Mills’ cell phone before getting in his car and leaving.
According to Benson, the law considers culpable states of mind, whether the person committing the crime does it ‘intentionally’ or ‘knowingly.’ Those are the two points in Maine law, which separate murder from manslaughter.
“Intentional means to bring about the result,” said Benson. “Knowingly means you are aware your conduct will bring about that desired result.”
The Mills murder is considered a depraved indifference murder, Benson said. He said that applies in cases where the crimes are particularly shocking, brutal, revolting or heinous. “To prove that, the court must prove that Okie caused the death, acting intentionally and knowingly, with a total lack of regard for human life,” Benson said.
According to Benson, Mills’ parents were home sleeping when the alleged incident occurred, but did not awaken. He set the scene again as he described Timothy Mills, Alexandra’s father, going downstairs July 10 to find his 19 year-old daughter lying partially clothed on the floor.
“Mills got up at eight a.m. and went to check on his daughter sleeping downstairs,” said Benson. “He found her unconscious, partially under a table bleeding and injured. He called 911 and started CPR on his daughter, but it was too late.”
Next, Benson created the scenario of the altercation between John A. Okie, and his father John S. Okie. He described the argument as rip-roaring, and explored the stabbing fully.
Benson portrayed Okie as heartless, calling his mother to tell her he would be right over to pick her up, as his father lay moaning and dying on the floor nearby. He explained Okie went around gathering evidence from the crime scene, changing his clothes and taking a shower, before leaving to get his mother.
Benson stated Okie was presumed to be sane the nights of both alleged murders. The defense initiated a short sidebar conversation before the prosecution could continue.
“It is an affirmative defense, the state has no burden of proof,” he said. “The defense must prove it is more likely than not, at the time of the incidents, Okie was mentally insane.”
He was careful to point out the high standard required to uphold an insanity defense in the state of Maine. A history of mental illness, even severe, is not enough to meet the standard of the insanity defense under Maine Law, according to Benson.
Under the law, only the most severe mental conditions, which demonstrably distort and impair a person’s perception and understanding of reality are applicable. He said only a full blown psychosis, characterized by disordered thinking, hallucinations, and delusions, which caused a person to lack an appreciation for the wrongness of his actions would meet the standard of the law.
“He would need to see a man-eating alien from Jupiter, or believe wholeheartedly he was Napoleon,” said Benson. “These laws were written to protect people who don’t know they are hurting people.”
He discussed Okie’s incidents of mental illness before he was charged with the murders, and pointed out his story changed at that point. According to Benson, after the murder charges were filed, Okie saw the defense-appointed psychiatrist to whom he told a story about a global scale battle between good and evil, with himself and a college classmate as the protagonists and Mills and his father as the antagonists.
Benson said Dr. Ann LeBlanc, and Dr. John Young, psychiatrists for the prosecution, gave Okie a structured interview of recorded symptoms test designed to see if he was faking his symptoms. The test is scored conservatively and gives the participant every benefit of the doubt, according to Benson.
“They found a 97.9 percent likelihood that he is making these stories up,” he said. “Okie is proud, privileged, and petulant, and he wants what he wants when he wants it.”
In response, the defense cited Okie’s family and school background, characterizing Okie as a quiet child. Defense attorney, Peter DeTroy, described family outings skiing and summering in Boothbay.
DeTroy delved into Okie’s entire history of mental illness starting in 2003. DeTroy portrayed Okie as a very sick man, and consistently referred him to as Johnny throughout his opening argument.
During his junior year in high school, Okie changed, according to friends and family. He became more distant and distracted, DeTroy said. He reported people at school being out to get him, and his parents received calls from the school about marijuana use and had to pick him up.
According to DeTroy, Okie’s behavior and illogical thoughts continued. It worsened to the point that his parents sought medical help.
First, the Okies’ family physician, Dr. Edward Kittfield of Wiscasset, diagnosed Okie with paranoid psychotic hallucinations. Then Okie was tested and interviewed at Spring Harbor Psychiatric Center.
DeTroy said two additional doctors evaluated Okie, and diagnosed him with paranoid delusional disorder at risk for recurrence. They prescribed him medication to ease his symptoms in early April 2003. According to DeTroy, people who suffer from this disease have some functional periods, but don’t know when symptoms will recur.
Okie did not always follow his doctor’s recommendations or tell his parents the truth about his treatment. “People who suffer from this disease don’t believe the medication helps,” said DeTroy. “Johnny would tell his mother he was going for appointments and not go. He would spit out his medication. He self-medicated with alcohol and marijuana.”
In the fall of 2004, Okie started at Kent’s Hill. DeTroy explained he lived with a close family friend near the school, and his parents visited him daily to monitor his progress. Okie and Mills became friends at Kent’s Hill that year.
DeTroy focused on Mills and Okie’s relationship, saying they used and abused each other. “It was not the kind of relationship you would want for your child,” he said.
Mills joined Okie, his family and some mutual friends on a Spring Break trip to Puerto Rico in early 2005. “In Puerto Rico Johnny obsessed mistakenly about Alexandra being pregnant,” said DeTroy. “He had a breakdown.”
In May 2006 Mills and Okie graduated from Kent’s Hill, and their relationship was effectively over, DeTroy said. Okie started the University of Southern Maine in the fall of 2006, but the strange behavior continued, including accusations of stalking a classmate.
It is at this point, DeTroy asserts that Okie developed the obsession about a large-scale battle between good and evil, and Mills, one of his USM classmates, and his father became part of that obsession.
“At this point Okie is significantly declining, but it’s hidden from view,” he said. “He is doing badly, and his friends are concerned.”
Before driving to Mills’ parents’ home in Wayne July 10, Okie was at a party drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana with friends until about 2 a.m., according to DeTroy. He drove to Mills’ home with no weapon, and no plan, calling on the way to arrange the meeting.
DeTroy remarked that Okie’s delusion was such, that he drove back to the Mills’ house, after killing their daughter there barely a half hour earlier, to borrow a couple of gallons of gas so he wouldn’t run out on the way back to his house in Newcastle.
He explained Okie killed his father because he thought his father was trying to poison him and prevent him from saving the world. After cleaning up the evidence from killing his father, he left the bag of clothing on the kitchen counter and his father dead on the floor, DeTroy said.
“Johnny was profoundly sick,” he said. “He thought he was doing right, in the grip of these delusions. He is not someone who would commit these homicides.”
After opening arguments, Mills’ father testified about his daughter, her life and accomplishments. He explained he and his wife, Donna, adopted Mills when she was two months old.
According to Mills, Alexandra attended schools in South Berwick, Maine and Newfield, New Hampshire. She loved basketball and drama, and had an entourage of kids that followed her around. The prosecution introduced a picture of Alexandra Mills’ smiling face taken during her senior year at Kent’s Hill as evidence.
Mills’ described his daughter as, “a big, physically powerful woman, with a big heart, who people gravitated to all her life.”
He described the night of the incident, noting Alexandra had gone to bed early because she didn’t feel well. Prosecutor Lisa Marchese questioned Mills about the layout of the house, and introduced a floor plan as evidence.
He explained he was sleeping upstairs in the house in Wayne July 10. “This house is very quiet,” Mills said. “There are a number of airlocks that prevent sound from traveling. From upstairs you can’t hear any noise from the back room.”
He cried as he described finding his daughter dead on the floor the next morning. When he found her cold stiff body lying on the floor, he first thought she had fallen from the loft, Mills said.
The prosecutor asked Mills if he saw a knife when he found his daughter’s body; he responded negatively. At that point Marchese held up the approximately four foot long by six inch diameter railing post used to beat Mills, for the jury to see.
She questioned Mills about his perception of his daughter and Okie’s relationship. He said he suspected they had a romantic interest in each other, but that his daughter had never spoken to him about it.
“Their senior year, they saw each other very little,” said Mills. “I had some concern at that point about his behavior, but that was because his actions always seemed very egocentric.”
Later in the day, the medical examiner spoke, giving the causes of death for Mills and John S. Okie. He said Mills died from blunt force trauma to the head, and Okie from sharp force injuries to the neck.
The trial is expected to last approximately two weeks. Nearly 45 witnesses are expected to testify.
