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AUGUSTA A convicted killer committed to Riverview Psychiatric Center, who pleaded guilty to escaping from the facility in 2018, had his conviction overturned this week by the state’s top court upon his appeal, ruling he had improperly been tried for the same criminal incident twice.
Mark Ian Gessner
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday that Mark Ian Gessner’s escape conviction be vacated and that the charge should be dismissed.
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Gessner, 57, was convicted of the 1994 murder of Melvin Henderson, a florist in Bath, for which he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. While serving his sentence for that crime in prison, Gessner was accused of aggravated assault and trafficking in prison contraband. He was found not criminally responsible for those charges and committed to the custody of the Commissioner of Health and Human Services in 2011.
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Escape charge dismissed for Maine man who served murder sentence
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court agreed with his argument that there should have been a single indictment, since his escape and subsequent threats against his brother and father constituted a single criminal episode.
Associated Press
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The Maine supreme court on Tuesday dismissed an escape charge against a man who served 22 years for murder before walking away from the Riverview Psychiatric Center, where he was committed.
Mark Gessner was being treated at the psychiatric hospital when he failed to return from a two-hour pass in 2018. He was charged with escape in Kennebec County, and two counts of criminal threatening in Sagadahoc County.