SKOWHEGAN — A Fairfield man convicted of assaulting a child tried to escape custody Wednesday by running out of a Skowhegan courtroom in handcuffs.

With a detective and others pursuing him down stairs and through a hallway, Nicholas Carter, 31, escaped the courthouse and bolted across the street.

But he did not make it far before he was stopped — first by two jurors, then by a detective.

Nicholas Carter Somerset County Sheriff’s Office photo

Carter had been found guilty of aggravated assault against a 14-month-old child, according to Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster.

A jury returned the verdict on the Class A offense after a three-day trial at the Somerset County Superior Courthouse, Chief Deputy Mike Mitchell said.

A judge ordered Carter taken into custody of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, and he was to be sent to the Somerset County Jail in Madison, Lancaster said in an interview Thursday morning. Carter had been out on bail before his trial, according to the sheriff.

While handcuffed, Carter jumped the bar and exited through the rear door of the second-floor courtroom, Lancaster said. That door is used by members of the public to enter and exit the gallery.

Detective Jeremy Leal of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, who was inside the courtroom, and judicial marshals chased after Carter as he ran down the staircase to the first floor of the courthouse, Lancaster said. Carter is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds, according to online jail records.

“Detective Leal was close behind him,” Lancaster said.

Security footage obtained Thursday by the Morning Sentinel shows Carter, who was wearing a suit, come down the stairway and run down the hallway, where the probate and county administrative offices are located.

Dawn DiBlasi, Skowhegan’s town manager and a lawyer, said she was inside the building for a case she had been assigned before taking the Skowhegan job this year. DiBlasi said she, her client and others were waiting on the first floor of the courthouse when she heard a commotion.

“All of sudden, we hear this huge bang. Crash. Boom,” DiBlasi said in a telephone interview. “And this guy comes running down the stairs. He’s handcuffed or shackled. He’s trying to escape. Literally, he’s got his hands on the railing, coming down, trying to jump three stairs at a time. His feet weren’t shackled.”

Another lawyer waiting in the hallway attempted to stop Carter, but was unsuccessful, and Carter exited the main entrance, according to security video.

A still image taken from surveillance video at the Somerset County Superior Courthouse in Skowhegan shows Nicholas Carter, 31, who was convicted of aggravated assault against a 14-month-old child, fleeing the building Wednesday, as a lawyer who was in a hallway attempts to stop him. Carter of Fairfield got outside and across the street, before being subdued by two jurors who were in court Wednesday, and then by a detective from the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office. Somerset County photo

Once outside, Carter proceeded down the ramp toward the courthouse’s parking lot off High Street, and kept running. He then turned and crossed the street.

Carter tripped and fell in a yard after crossing the street, and two bystanders helped subdue him until Leal, the detective, caught up, according to Lancaster.

The bystanders were two jurors who were in court Wednesday, according to Lancaster.

Carter was taken back into custody by police without incident, Lancaster said. He now faces a charge of escape in connection with the incident.

A sentencing hearing for the aggravated assault case is expected in the coming weeks, Lancaster said. A court clerk said Thursday morning that a sentencing hearing had not yet been scheduled.

SECURITY CONCERNS 

Wednesday’s attempted escape marks the second major security-related incident this year at the Somerset County Superior Courthouse. In April, the brother of a murder victim jumped the bar and tried to attack his sister’s killer, following a lengthy, emotional sentencing hearing. The man will not be prosecuted on an assault charge, Maeghan Maloney, the district attorney for Somerset and Kennebec counties, said recently.

The Sheriff’s Office is constantly reviewing its security protocols, Lancaster said. At the two courts in Skowhegan, the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office provides court security.

It is one of two county sheriff’s offices in Maine to provide that service, instead of the Maine Judicial Marshal Service, according to a spokesperson for the Maine Judicial Branch. Through its contract, the county receives funding from the state for the majority of its security costs, Lancaster said.

“I believe there is a tick up for occurrences that are happening in the courtroom,” the sheriff said. “And the need for judicial marshals is important for the safety of not only the courts, but also for the victims and the people that are having to attend the court.”

The Somerset County Courthouse in Skowhegan, photographed in June. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel file

Two judicial marshals were inside the second-floor courtroom when Carter fled, according to Lancaster. Another marshal assigned to staff the front desk, near the main entrance of the courthouse through which Carter got outside, had stepped away to take a break.

“He was in the building and could respond to any type of immediate crisis,” Lancaster said. “He just wasn’t at the desk at that time.”

The Somerset County Board of Commissioners recently addressed one concern regarding court security. At the board’s meeting July 24, Probate Judge Robert Washburn requested marshals be at the courthouse on scheduled probate court days due to a recent increase in altercations. Previously, judicial marshals only staffed the courthouse if Superior Court was also in session, due to the state reimbursement policy.

Tim Curtis, the county administrator, said that would be possible within the current budget and staffing levels.

‘MORE AND MORE DANGEROUS’

As for staffing, Somerset County now has all three of its full-time judicial marshal positions filled, Curtis said Thursday. Reserve marshals also fill shifts.

County officials have no plans to increase the number of security personnel or make other major changes, Curtis said.

Improving security at the courthouse has been an issue in the past, according to DiBlasi, the Skowhegan town manager, who had Curtis’ job as county administrator from 2013 to 2023.

DiBlasi said county officials decided to install locked doors just past the main entrance that require keycard access or an employee inside to buzz in a member of the public when no marshal is staffing the front desk, typically when Superior Court is not in session.

“It was getting more and more dangerous in the building, so my (Board of Commissioners) back then installed some security,” DiBlasi said. “We had a deputy that would be out front. And then, because they became short-staffed, they started pulling their deputies, so we put in those security doors.”

A planned replacement for the Superior Courthouse — a 30,000-square-foot, $45 million addition to Skowhegan District Court — promises several other security upgrades, according to plans from the Maine Judicial Branch.