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 is accused of killing his best friend, allegedly 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.
Gary Brinson is currently facing one count of intentional or knowing murder in the 2024 slaying of Lee Ruona.
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. 4, 2024, both men reportedly split more than a gallon of bourbon and more than 20 beers before Ruona was killed.
Officers with the Bangor Police Department at about 9:57 a.m. on Dec. 4, 2024, responded to a 911 call from Brinson, who reported that Ruona was dead in his apartment, the Bangor Daily News reported, citing a probable cause affidavit.
"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 this week 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 Bangor-based CBS and CW affiliate 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."
The trial, which began Monday, continued with more witness testimony on Wednesday.
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