Tyler Quirion of Waterville shakes hands with his defense attorney, Justin Andrus, at a bail hearing Friday at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. Quirion faces murder and manslaughter charges connected to the Feb. 19 shooting death of Justin Iraola, 22, outside a home on South Grove Street in Waterville. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

AUGUSTA — A bail hearing for Tyler Quirion on Friday revealed a fistfight outside a party ended in the shooting death of a Waterville man.

Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy listens Friday during a bail hearing for Tyler Quirion at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Quirion, 20, of Waterville, charged with murder in the Feb. 19 shooting death of Justin Iraola, 22, in Waterville, remains jailed while Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy decides whether to grant him bail. The state argues that he poses a flight risk and is a danger to the community and should remain held without bail. His defense team said he has no criminal record and was acting in self defense, and added he has family willing to put up $15,000 in bail to get him released.

Murphy did not decide whether to grant him bail, instead said she’ll take time to review the case and decide the bail question as soon as next week.

Testimony for Quirion, however, did provide some insight into the events which ended with Iraola dead in an icy driveway and Quirion fleeing from the scene and later being found hiding in a tree at a Waterville boat landing.

Maine State Police Detective Sgt. Mark Ferreira testified that Quirion was in a fistfight with Frankie Iraola, the late Justin Iraola’s brother, after Quirion had been thrown out of a party at 18 South Grove St. He said that Justin Iraola became involved in the altercation as well. The three were engaged in a struggle when three gunshots, allegedly fired by Quirion, struck Justin Iraola, killing him.

Quirion then fled the scene on foot, and was later apprehended by a state police tactical team which used a dog to track him to a Waterville boat launch. He told an officer at the time that he had shot a gun and then was being chased by people from the party who had a gun. Quirion has declined to talk to police in the several months since the shooting, Ferreira said.

Quirion has denied the charges of murder, manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person in connection with the shooting death of Justin Iraola. He pleaded not guilty last month.

Justin Andrus and Andrew Wright, two of three attorneys assigned to defend Quirion, said the defendant was acting in self defense when he was being attacked by two men, and argued the state may have probable cause to charge Quirion with manslaughter, but not murder.

Detective Sgt. Mark Ferreira, left, answers questions from defense attorney Justin Andrus, who holds a photo of the crime scene, during a bail hearing Friday for Tyler Quirion in Augusta. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

“We know this was an altercation between one 20-year-old (Quirion) and two other people, Frankie and Justin,” Wright said at the Capital Judicial Center. “I think there were two people raining blows on one person. Tyler’s not a large individual, either. Two people continue to stop him from trying to leave, they keep pulling him back, and eventually someone shot.”

Prosecutor Leanne Robbin argued that Quirion, if released on bail, could pose a danger to the public. She said the night of the party he was using cocaine that he had brought with him and had been told to leave the party by a woman who she described as the homeowner and who pushed him, causing him to fall over. She said police aren’t sure why Quirion shot Iraola because he’s declined to talk to them about the incident.

She said Frankie Iraola intervened after the homeowner pushed Quirion because it appeared Quirion was going to come after her.

“We still don’t know why he shot under the circumstances that he did. He still hasn’t told us what was in his head,” Robbin said of Justin Iraola. “He’s using phenomenally bad judgement, he’s using and dealing cocaine, he’s carrying and flashing a gun, and he was told he needed to leave. He flashed the gun and threatened to use it. He left and came back. We’ve got a young man, armed with a gun, using drugs and not taking ‘no’ for an answer.”

Ferreira also testified that a man he interviewed told police about an incident he experienced with Quirion at a party sometime last winter in Canaan at which Quirion pulled a gun on him after he had flirted with Quirion’s cousin

Wright said there was no evidence by which to judge whether the man that told police those things was reliable.

Wright noted Quirion knew he was under investigation in the shooting since February yet did not flee and remained at his home. He has no criminal record and strong connections to his family in the area. Those family members are willing to post bail but they, like him, have limited financial resources to post a high amount of bail, Wright added.

Quirion was arrested Sept. 20 and charged with the Feb. 19 murder of  Iraola outside a duplex home on South Grove Street in Waterville. A Kennebec County grand jury indicted him Sept. 19 on charges of murder, manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

Iraola lived in Winslow at the time of his death.

Waterville police initially responded to the shooting, which occurred outside the two-unit home at 16-18 South Grove St., shortly after 8 a.m. Feb. 19.

The indictment alleges Quirion used a Taurus 9 mm pistol to commit the crime.

The possession of a firearm by a prohibited person charge alleges Quirion was prohibited from possessing a firearm as an unlawful user or addict to a controlled substance, according to the indictment.

Harnish bail hearings are held when an offense that has allegedly been committed was once considered a capital crime in Maine.

An autopsy conducted by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner on the day of the shooting determined the cause and manner of Iraola’s death to be multiple gunshot wounds/homicide.

Quirion faces 25 years to life in prison, without parole, on the murder charge.