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ELLSWORTH — Maine
State Police arrested David Grant of Augusta on a
charge of murder last Thursday in connection with
the death of his mother-in-law, Janet Hagerthy, a
Patten Pond camp owner, whose funeral was held
here Monday.
Hagerthy and Grant
are Ellsworth natives.
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Wentworth Indicted In
Beating Death
By Jennifer
Osborn
ELLSWORTH — A Hancock
County grand jury Tuesday indicted a
Township 8 man on a charge of
manslaughter in connection with the
beating of a Franklin man who slipped
into a coma and died three weeks later.
Jack D. Wentworth Jr., 19, was indicted on charges of manslaughter
and aggravated assault. (Additional
grand jury indictments appear on page
10.)
Police had initially arrested Wentworth Sept. 21 on a charge of
aggravated assault.
He is free on bail.
Officials said the Hancock County Superior Court has not set an
arraignment date.
When arraigned, Wentworth will enter a
plea on the charge.
Ellsworth Police said Wentworth allegedly beat Daniel Wallace, 50,
outside a North Street residence on
Sept. 20, kicking him repeatedly in the
head once he was on the ground.
Wallace suffered brain injury and underwent surgery the day after
the assault.
A family member said Wallace never regained consciousness.
Police said Wallace had been trying to intervene in an argument
between his daughter and Wentworth, who
were friends.
The state has not sought a murder charge because the state does not
believe Wentworth intended to kill
Wallace, according to the Maine Attorney
General’s Office.
The State Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday a cause of death
for Wallace is still pending. |
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Police said Grant
kidnapped Hagerthy, 74, the evening of Nov. 30
from her Farmingdale home.
Police found
Hagerthy’s body two streets away from her home the
next morning. Police found Grant in his pickup
truck with a self-inflicted stab wound earlier
that day in Palmyra. He had surgery at Eastern
Maine Medical
Center.
Investigators say
they believe Hagerthy was taken from her home by
Grant and driven away in Grant’s pickup truck,
said Maine State Police spokesman Stephen
McCausland.
Grant, 54,
appeared in Kennebec County Superior Court on
Friday where the judge ordered him held without
bail, according to the Associated Press.
Dr. Margaret
Greenwald, Maine’s chief medical examiner, said
Hagerthy’s cause of death was “multiple traumatic
injuries.”
Meanwhile, more
than 100 of Hagerthy’s friends and family attended
her funeral Monday afternoon. The Rev. Bob
Maddocks officiated.
Maddocks described
Hagerthy as a loving woman who had worked as a
head nurse. She was a world traveler, having been
to Australia, New Zealand, Germany
and Bermuda among other places.
“She loved to
garden and she loved cats,” Maddocks said.
“She loved life,”
he added. “She could see the good in others.”
Maddocks described
Hagerthy as an adventurous woman who loved the
outdoors.
Grant is a
convicted felon with a criminal history in Hancock
County.
In 1988, he was
convicted of aggravated assault and gross sexual
misconduct.
For those charges,
he was sentenced in Hancock County Superior Court
to 13 years in prison, all but eight years
suspended.
In 1989, he was
convicted of one count of gross sexual misconduct.
For that crime he was sentenced to 9½ years, which
he was ordered to serve concurrently with the two
other charges.
Grant served his
time at the Maine State Prison in Thomaston.
In Florida in
1981, he also was convicted of battery and
aggravated assault. |
