ALFRED — The man who triggered Maine’s first Amber Alert when he fled the state with his 2-year-old daughter in November 2009 was convicted Monday of aggravated assault and criminal restraint, but jurors deadlocked on the most serious of the four charges from the incident.
Gary Traynham, 39, of Kennebunk was charged with gross sexual assault in the violent encounter he had with his ex-girlfriend in Sanford before he took their daughter to New Hampshire.
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The jury of six men and six women remained hung on that charge and on a burglary charge.
Traynham has spent more than 15 months in the York County Jail since his arrest. He will be sentenced later this month in York County Superior Court.
Aggravated assault is a felony that’s punishable by as much as 10 years in prison. Criminal restraint is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of 364 days. Gross sexual assault carries a penalty of as much as 30 years in prison.
“You hope they could reach a verdict on all counts,” said Assistant District Attorney Thad West, who said in his opening statement March 1 that the state intended to prove that Traynham raped Lisa Gould in front of their child.
He said it will be “some time” before prosecutors decide whether to retry Traynham on the rape and burglary charges.
West said he was encouraged by the two convictions on the lesser charges.
Traynham’s attorney, Amy Fairfield, praised the jury for thoughtful deliberations.
“You could tell that they were really grappling with the evidence that was presented, and there was a lot,” she said. “It was a tough case.”
After hearing closing arguments on Friday, the jury deliberated for three hours before adjourning for the weekend.
On Monday morning, jurors asked Justice G. Arthur Brennan for clarification on the four charges, and he explained each in detail shortly before 10 a.m.
At 2:30 p.m., the jury foreman sent a note to Brennan indicating jurors’ inability to reach a unanimous decision on the two charges. Brennan called the jurors back to the courtroom and asked them to continue deliberating with an open mind.
After a little less than an hour of further consideration, the jurors returned, still deadlocked on the two charges.
The only family members in the courtroom Monday were those of Traynham. They declined comment after the verdicts.
Fairfield said Traynham was “thrilled” about not being convicted of rape. She said forensic evidence failed to support Gould’s allegation, and said there were inconsistencies between statements made to police in October and at trial last week.
“I don’t know if the state is going to retry,” Fairfield said. “I guess I would be surprised if we did this all over again.”
Fairfield said she considers Traynham a good candidate for probation in addition to some jail time. She lamented the nearly 16 months between his arrest and trial.
“The reason it took so long to get it to trial is that it took us (nine months) to get forensics,” she said. “I don’t fault the lab people at all. I think it’s just another function of understaffed, underbudgeted state agencies.”
Fairfield and West plan to meet with Brennan later this week to set a sentencing date.
Traynham prompted the Amber Alert on Nov. 9, 2009, when he fled with 2-year-old Hailey after the encounter with Gould.
The Amber Alert program is a partnership of law enforcement, broadcasters, transportation agencies and the wireless communications industry to activate an urgent bulletin in the event of a child abduction. Although the national program had been active for seven years at that point, it had never been triggered in Maine.
The alert about Traynham went out on television, radio, Internet sites and message boards on the Maine Turnpike.
The next day, he was found on a dirt road in Milton, N.H., by a hunter who persuaded him to turn himself in to authorities.
Staff Writer Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:
gjordan@pressherald.com
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