AUGUSTA — Police matched DNA from the turned-out pockets of Aurele Fecteau’s pants to Roland L. Cummings, who is charged with stabbing 92-year-old Fecteau to death in his bed in Waterville on May 20.
That match was detailed in an affidavit by Maine State Police Detective Abbe Chabot that was made available Monday in Kennebec County Superior Court.
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Police said Cummings, who grew up in the Bingham and Waterville area and was unemployed, did some household chores for Fecteau.
Police arrested Cummings, 44, on Friday in Waterville.
Fecteau’s body was discovered May 23 — three days after the murder — by his son, Ernest Fecteau, and his wife, who came to check on him at his home at 33 Brooklyn Ave., Waterville.
Chabot’s affidavit says Fecteau was fatally stabbed on the left side of his body, and the medical examiner found that one of the wounds penetrated a lung.
Bank records and checkbooks were piled on top of a blanket, which covered Fecteau, Chabot’s affidavit says.
Police also found evidence of a break-in and search — pry marks on the rear entry door and wood chips from the door jamb — and boxes of jewelry open and apparently some items missing. In addition, they found three pairs of pants on Fecteau’s floor with pockets turned inside out.
A DNA analyst at the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory later found DNA that matched Cummings’ on the pockets.
Family members told police Fecteau kept hundreds of dollars on him, but not more than that, and one son, David Fecteau, said he occasionally borrowed money from him.
David Fecteau also told police Roland Cummings called him to say he had visited Aurele Fecteau recently.
On May 24, Cummings told police he had been staying with a woman in Skowhegan while he was looking for a job and that he had last been in Fecteau’s house briefly three weeks earlier.
Cummings gave a DNA sample at that time, and a day later told them he needed money for his suboxone prescription and asked Fecteau if he had any work he could do. Cummings said when he visited Aurele Fecteau, he went into the bathroom and rifled his pockets, stealing $2 in change.
However, Chabot wrote that police later interviewed the Skowhegan woman, and she identified two rings she had received from Cummings and later sold to her former landlords. David Fecteau identified one ring as belonging to his father and said his father kept it in a jewelry box in his bedroom.
Defense attorney William Baghdoyan represented Cummings Monday at the brief court hearing before Justice Michaela Murphy. He told the judge that he was not taking murder cases, so another attorney would have to be appointed.
Cummings was brought to court in shackles and wore an orange jail uniform and orange clogs. He did not address the judge in the courtroom.
Murphy told Cummings that the murder charge carries a minimum penalty of 25 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison without possibility of parole. She said he would not be asked to enter a plea until the case has been considered by a grand jury.
The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea, said the state would request a Harnish hearing to attempt to extinguish his right to bail.
In the meantime, Murphy ordered Cummings held without bail.
Cummings has several previous criminal convictions in Maine.
He was convicted of burglary and theft in November 2012 in Somerset County Superior Court and sentenced to four years in jail, with all but 90 days suspended and two years probation. He also was ordered to pay $3,553 restitution in connection with the offenses which occurred Aug. 19, 2012, in Skowhegan. He was previously convicted of violating conditions of release.
In June 2012, he was convicted in Skowhegan District Court of two counts of negotiating a worthless instrument and sentenced to 72 hours in jail and ordered to pay $350 restitution. He has a home address of Moscow in those cases.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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