Inset: Gary Brinson (Penobscot County Sheriff's Officer). Background: The Maine apartment building where Brinson and the man he's accused of killing both lived (WMTW).
A 71-year-old man in Maine will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his best friend, stabbing the 64-year-old man several times and leaving the body lying just a few feet from where he was watching TV inside his apartment when police arrived.
Penobscot County Judge Ann Murray on Tuesday ordered Gary Brinson to serve 35 years in a state correctional facility for the slaying of Lee Ruona, Bangor Daily News reported. The sentence came down after a jury in February found Brinson guilty of murder.
Both men were combat veterans who lived in the same apartment building and regularly got together to drink alcohol and "forget" about their PTSD, Poland Spring-based ABC affiliate WMTW reported. On the evening of Dec. 3, 2024, both men reportedly split more than a gallon of bourbon and more than 20 beers before Ruona was killed.
During the sentencing hearing, Ruona's sister, Erin Macstravic, addressed the court, reportedly took pity on Brinson but referred to him as a "ticking time bomb" as she implored Murray to hand down a life sentence.
"I feel sorry for Mr. Brinson's family, but I am here to plead that [Brinson] is never allowed back into society," she said. "By Mr. Brinson's own statements, he can become violent when he drinks. His alcohol-infused, violent outburst took Lee [Ruona] away forever. [Brinson's] alcoholism makes him a ticking time bomb that unfortunately exploded on my family."
The victim's daughter, Courtney Ruona, had far harsher words for the convicted killer.
"I'm consumed by grief and guilt and an undying hate for Gary Brinson," she reportedly told the court. "My only solace will be when he no longer breathes the air my father once did. He can rot in hell in this world and the one to come."
Prosecutors had sought a harsher sentence but said the court's ruling was effectively a life sentence, WABI reported.
"I think a 35-year sentence is an appropriate sanction for the brutal killing of Lee Ruona. Mr. Brinson has accepted no responsibility, shows no remorse, and in fact said horrible things about the person that he called his best friend," Leanne Robbin, assistant attorney general commented following the sentencing. "He thought that he should just throw him in the dumpster, or he should have put him out where the homeless people are. He seemed to be put out because the police officers were going to do a search warrant and process the evidence because he just wanted to return to his apartment, which was at that point blood covered, to watch his favorite TV show. Thirty-five years will make sure that he never does this to anyone else again."
As Law&Crime previously reported, at about 9:57 a.m. on Dec. 4, 2024, officers with the Bangor Police Department responded to a 911 call from Brinson, who reported that Ruona was dead in his apartment.
"I got a dead guy laying on my bed," he reportedly told the 911 dispatcher.
Asked by the dispatcher if he killed Ruona, Brinson reportedly denied it, saying, "Why would I kill my best friend?"
One of the first responding officers testified during the trial that when he entered the home, Brinson was sitting in a chair holding a bottle of bourbon and watching television "within arm's reach" of his friend's corpse.
"There's blood everywhere in the apartment," the officer told the court, per Bangor Daily. "On the floor, over on the bed, the bed sheets, the walls, and he was just sitting there watching TV like nothing was wrong."
An autopsy conducted by a medical examiner reportedly found that Ruona suffered nearly 150 shallow, skin-level puncture wounds and five deeper stab wounds in the back. The exam also revealed a fractured spine and several fractured ribs. The medical examiner determined Ruona's manner of death to be a homicide and the cause of death to be multiple sharp and blunt force injuries.
At the police department, Brinson allegedly told investigators he would have been better off if he had "just thrown the body in the dumpster." Police said Brinson was clearly intoxicated.
However, the following day, Brinson reportedly spoke to detectives in his hotel room and made several statements, including "They've got me, I've done it, I'm going to jail." The hotel room where Brinson was staying at the time had been paid for by the department because Brinson's home was being processed as a crime scene.
Brinson also allegedly sent his stepdaughter a text message saying he "beat the s— out of my Lee," apologizing to her before adding, "a side I thought was over with is back."
Brinson's defense attorney argued that Brinson was likely so drunk that he would have been unable to act in an intentional manner, a critical component of the intentional murder charge.
"We expect you to learn that intoxication may create reasonable doubt that a defendant is acting in an intentional or knowing way," defense attorney Kaylee Folster told jurors, according to WABI. "You may find out that defendant's levels of intoxication undermine that state's ability to establish under reasonable doubt."
Prosecutors, on the other hand, reportedly asserted that the alcohol only stoked the flames of Brinson's fury.
"With the evidence taken all together compels one conclusion," Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin said in court. "In an alcohol-fueled rage, Mr. Brinson beat his drinking buddy to death, and you should find him guilty of intentional and knowing murder."
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