AUGUSTA — The first man arrested and charged with murder in connection with the November beating death of 31-year-old Joseph Marceau of Augusta formally pleaded not guilty Thursday in a brief arraignment at the Capital Judicial Center.
Damik Davis, 25, of Queens, New York, is charged with murder in three separate forms — intentional or knowing or depraved indifference — as well as felony murder, murder and robbery related to Marceau’s death Nov. 23, 2015, in a Washington Street apartment building.
Few details about Marceau’s death have been released, although police at the time said it was a drug-related killing. Alsop said after Thursday’s hearing that Marceau had been beaten to death and no knives or firearms were involved.
The night Marceau was killed, neighbors in the apartment building reported hearing loud noises in that apartment. Marceau lived about a mile away in an apartment on Winthrop Street.
Davis has been held without bail since his initial appearance on the charges where he did not enter a plea.
On Thursday, he formally denied the charges in front of Justice Daniel Billings. Davis, who was in an orange jail uniform, was accompanied by his attorney Stephen Smith, who said they waived reading of the indictment. Davis was told a conviction on the murder charge carries a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison, and the possibility of life in prison.
Assistant Attorney General John Alsop requested Davis be held without bail, and Smith agreed that Davis could remain held without bail on a day-to-day basis, pending any request for a bail hearing by the defense.
Marceau’s mother watched the hearing, sitting with a victim/witness advocate, but declined to comment.
While Davis was charged shortly after the discovery of Marceau’s body, three other people were indicted later on the same charges by a Kennebec County grand jury.
They are Michael Sean McQuade, 35, of Augusta, who has also pleaded not guilty; Zina Marie Fritze, 27, of Augusta, who committed suicide by hanging herself in jail on Jan. 27, a day after pleading not guilty to all the charges; and Aubrey Armstrong, 21, of Far Rockaway, New York, who is the subject of a manhunt. McQuade and Fritze were being evicted from the apartment where Marceau’s body was found, and police initially searched for them for several days, seeking to question them but not arresting them at the time.
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