AUGUSTA — A Winthrop woman convicted of causing the death of another in a 2014 car crash was ordered Monday to serve six months in jail after she violated the terms of her probation by drinking, using illegal drugs and failing to do community service.
Alyssa D. Marcellino, of Winthrop, was ordered in September 2015 to serve an initial 32 months behind bars for causing the death of one woman and seriously injuring a second while driving without a license in 2014 in Monmouth. The remainder of the six-year sentence was suspended and she was placed on probation.
Marcellino, 25, asked Justice William Stokes on Monday at the Capital Judicial Center for a second chance even as the prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh, asked that she serve the 32 months remaining of the suspended portion of the sentence, saying she’s “un-supervisable” in the community. Marcellino admitted she had committed a number of probation violations after being released from prison last October but pleaded for leniency.
“I’m not a lost cause, your honor,” Marcellino told Stokes on Monday. “I’m asking you please to grant me a second chance to try to live and thrive in the community.”
But Cavanaugh raised concerns about the threat to the public.
“How much can we ask the community to risk while she figures this out?” Cavanaugh said. “We can’t ask them to risk any more.”
The crash occurred around 7:30 a.m. March 6, 2014, as Gene Potter and Joan Fortier, in a 2006 Hyundai Elantra, were headed west on U.S. Route 202 in Monmouth. Marcellino, driving a 1999 Mercury Mountaineer, was headed east when she drifted into the westbound lane in front of the Hyundai, police said. Potter, then 70, swerved into the eastbound lane to avoid the crash as Marcellino corrected and also swerved back into the eastbound lane, police said.
The vehicles hit head-on. Fortier, 67, of Mount Vernon, a passenger in Potter’s vehicle, died at the scene. She was Potter’s sister.
In court Monday, Marcellino’s attorney, Scott Hess, suggested a much shorter jail time for the probation violations. Hess said she has a plan to enter an intensive substance abuse treatment program and a job lined up in Fairfield with a former employer who told the judge Monday he would help support her rehabilitation efforts as he has aided others. Hess also noted there were no new criminal charges. Marcellino was released in October 2016 because she received credit for the time she had been held on the charges as well as so-called good-time credit and other deductions.
She admitted she had used illegal drugs and alcohol on various occasions in December 2016 and January 2017, failed to do six hours of community service each month as required under the terms of her probation and failed to do substance abuse treatment. She also did not notify her probation officer of a change of address when she left her sober living house in Gorham and spent several days with her boyfriend.
Marcellino’s probation officer, Catherine Fisher, suggested a six-month probation revocation for violations.
Cavanaugh also told the judge that while being held in the Cumberland County jail on the probation revocation motions, Marcellino tested positive for suboxone.
In the end, Stokes sided with the probation officer and ordered Marcellino to serve six months for the probation violations.
He recalled the earlier sentencing hearing in 2015. “The death and injury to Ms. Fortier and Ms. Potter are incalculable to measure,” Stokes said.
In March 2016, Fortier’s widower filed a wrongful death lawsuit over the crash. That lawsuit has since been settled.
Potter and several of her family members attended the probation revocation hearing Monday but did not address the judge on that issue. Several members of Marcellino’s family were at the hearing Monday as well.
Stokes asked Potter how she was doing and she told him, “I’m hanging in there. Every step I take I can feel it, but I can step, so that’s good.”
Stokes also said he had been particularly troubled by one item listed as “aggravating factor” at the sentencing hearing — the fact that Marcellino drove again about two weeks after the fatal crash and ended up rolling her car over.
Fisher on Monday said she sought to get Marcellino’s probation revoked because “it got to point where I could no longer safely manage her in the community.”
However, Fisher said Marcellino should get another chance. “The ball’s in her court again,” Fisher said.
Stokes, in imposing the six months’ partial revocation, told Marcellino, “I do not think you’re a lost cause,” and he encouraged her to take the help offered by the probation office as well as her former employer and others. Marcellino has been held since January and will get credit for that time as well.
Stokes also warned her that once the three-year probation period finishes, she has an additional two-year probation to serve because of separate theft convictions.
When Marcellino pleaded guilty to the charges related to the crashes, she also pleaded guilty to two charges of theft and one of receiving stolen property, all relating to a check-cashing scheme that operated March 19 to May 17, 2014, in Augusta and involved a total of $6,415.
“I hope the next time I see you, it’s not in this environment and not in this circumstance,” Stokes said.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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