A Nobleboro man faces up to 13 years in prison after reaching a plea deal during his trial for attacking a woman with a stun gun in Damariscotta last August.
Scott L. Gifford, 53, of 11 School St., pleaded guilty to felony assault and criminal threatening in Lincoln County Superior Court in Wiscasset June 10.
Gifford donned a ski mask and hid behind a bush before attacking an adult female relative outside her Damariscotta home the night of Aug. 27, 2014. He confessed to the attack and was arrested later that night.
Gifford faced charges of class B criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, class B reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, and class C assault at the outset of the trial.
The state had dismissed a fourth charge of class A aggravated assault June 1 due to “insufficient evidence of serious bodily injury,” according to court documents.
The Maine Sex Offender Registry lists Gifford as a lifetime registrant with two convictions for gross sexual misconduct, four convictions for sexual abuse of a minor, and one conviction for unlawful sexual contact.
Gifford is currently on probation for sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl in 2003.
A trial on his new charges began in Lincoln County Superior Court in Wiscasset the morning of June 10. Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Liberman represented the state. Brunswick attorney Seth Levy represented Gifford.
Levy did not contest the facts of the attack. Instead, his defense focused solely on whether the particular stun gun in question constitutes a dangerous weapon under Maine law.
“This is a case about whether or not a dangerous weapon was used,” Levy told the jury in his opening argument. “It is absolutely the fundamental issue and it is why we are here today.”
The device in question costs $15-$30 and has a flashlight feature, Levy said. “There is no evidence and the state cannot produce any evidence that people have been killed or seriously hurt by this device,” he said.
Liberman called the victim as the first witness. The woman had spoken to Gifford earlier in the day and he knew when she was going to arrive home. She was returning from work at the time of the attack when she spotted him in her peripheral vision.
“I looked right into his eyes and I knew who it was … I looked at him and I said, ‘Scott, don’t do this,'” she said.
She said she froze “and then he lunged at me.” As she fell to the ground, she heard a sound like “a bunch of bugs were getting zapped all at once” and realized it was a stun gun.
“I thought it was over,” she said. “I didn’t know what else was going to happen to me.”
She was not stunned, however, and when she saw an opening, she fought back. “As I realized he was lifting his weight up off of me, I realized that was my chance to do something,” she said.
Her car keys were still in her hand and “I just started hitting him in the head, and next thing I know, he runs off across my front yard,” she said. She went to a nearby store and called police.
The next witness to testify was the primary investigating officer, Damariscotta Police Department Sgt. Jason Warlick. Warlick was on patrol at the time of the attack.
Warlick testified about the minutes and hours after the attack, including Gifford’s confession and the recovery of the ski mask, stun gun, and other evidence with assistance from Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies and a county K-9 unit.
Liberman played excerpts from a body camera recording of the confession.
The audio was difficult to hear in the courtroom, although Gifford clearly admits to attacking and attempting to stun the woman. When Warlick asks him why he did it, he said, “Just to scare her.”
The trial bogged down during Warlick’s testimony Wednesday afternoon as Levy repeatedly objected to Liberman’s questions and Warlick’s responses and questioned whether Warlick’s training with a Taser qualified him to testify about a generic stun gun.
The state and the defense reached their plea deal during a break in Warlick’s testimony.
The state dismissed the reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon charge and reduced the class B criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon charge to class C criminal threatening. Gifford pleaded guilty to class C assault and criminal threatening.
Gifford also admitted to violating his probation in the 2003 case.
In the earlier case, Gifford pleaded guilty April 26, 2004 to four counts of class B sexual abuse of a minor and a single class D count each of assault, obstructing report of a crime/injury, and terrorizing.
The cumulative effect of his sentences was 10 years in prison with six years of probation and the possibility of up to eight more years in prison if he were to violate probation. A conviction for any crime constitutes a violation of probation.
Gifford served more than 8 1/2 years in prison before his release Dec. 5, 2012, according to court documents.
Justice Daniel Billings said Gifford would likely receive a full revocation, meaning he would return to prison for the eight years remaining on his sentence.
He could receive up to the maximum five-year sentence for his new crimes. The sentences for the new crimes would likely run concurrently with each other, but consecutively to the eight-year probation revocation, Billings said.
As a result, Gifford faces up to 13 years in prison. His sentence hearing will take place at 9:30 a.m., Tuesday, June 23.
Class A, B, and C crimes are felonies with maximum sentences of 30, 10, and five years in prison, respectively. A class D crime is a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of 364 days.
