The state’s highest court has denied a new trial to a Lewiston man convicted of stabbing his former girlfriend nearly two dozen times. In May, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments in Portland in the case of Cleveland Cruthirds, 27, who was found guilty last year of elevated aggravated assault, burglary and violation […]
Cleveland Cruthirds
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Lewiston man sentenced to 28 years in stabbing attack
AUBURN — A Lewiston man was sentenced Friday to 28 years in prison, with all but 22 suspended, plus four years of probation in the “brutal” stabbing of his former girlfriend. Cleveland Cruthirds was convicted last week of felony elevated aggravated assault in the stabbing of 23-year-old Naomi Swift 21 times in December 2011. Cruthirds, 27, […]
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Jury expected to deliberate today in Cruthirds trial
AUBURN — The jury in the Cleveland Cruthirds attempted murder trial is expected to begin deliberations Tuesday without hearing from him. Cruthirds, 27, formerly of 260 Park St. in Lewiston, has decided he will not testify. On Monday morning in Androscoggin County Superior Court, after a week of testimony, the state rested its case against […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Court sanctions prosecution for missing statements in attempted murder trial
AUBURN — The judge in the attempted murder trial of Cleveland Cruthirds chastised the Lewiston Police Department for losing three witness statements but denied a defense motion to dismiss the case Friday. Androscoggin County Superior Court Justice Robert Clifford said defense lawyers learned Friday morning, the fourth day of the trial, that three statements taken […]
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Defense team blasts Lewiston detective’s techniques in Cruthirds trial
AUBURN — Cleveland Cruthirds’s defense attorney accused retired Lewiston Detective Lee Jones of seizing on his client as the only possible suspect just hours after Naomi Swift was stabbed in 2011, and never looked at other possible suspects. John Paul DeGrinney described the detective’s investigation as one conducted to convict Cruthirds, not to examine the […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Cruthirds’ attorney questions how police handled blood evidence
AUBURN — How much evidence was collected and the way it was handled by police was the subject of intense scrutiny Wednesday, the second day of the attempted murder trial of Cleveland Cruthirds. Cruthirds, 27, of Lewiston is accused of stabbing Naomi Swift, also of Lewiston, 21 times in December 2011. He is facing six […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Cruthirds attempted murder trial begins in Auburn
AUBURN — “Twenty-one stab wounds. That’s how many stab wounds Naomi Swift had in her when Lewiston police officers found her,” Assistant District Attorney Andrew Matulis said. Swift was attacked in December 2011 and Cleveland Cruthirds, her former on-again off-again boyfriend, is on trial, charged with attempting to murder her at her Blake Street apartment […]