HOULTON, Maine — A 17-year-old Houlton youth was indicted as an adult on a murder charge by the Aroostook County grand jury Friday, according to District Attorney Todd Collins.
Samuel Geary was 16 and his co-defendant, Reginald Dobbins, was 18 when the two allegedly stabbed and brutally beat 61-year-old Keith Suitter to death at his home on March 1, 2015.
Geary had been charged as a juvenile and Dobbins as an adult, but that changed last month after the younger teen appeared before Aroostook County District Court Judge Bernard O’Mara for a bind-over hearing to determine if he would be tried as an adult.
In a 15-page ruling released on April 29, O’Mara wrote that the state had shown probable cause to believe that murder had been committed and that “Samuel Geary, together with another, had committed the crime.” O’Mara also said that the juvenile had failed to establish “by a preponderance of the evidence” that it was not appropriate to prosecute him as an adult.
That opened the door for the case to be presented to the grand jury.
Geary had earlier entered a plea of denial in juvenile court, which is equivalent to a not guilty plea in adult proceedings. He had been held in a state juvenile facility since he and Dobbins were arrested in March 2015. Efforts to find out where Geary is being held now were unsuccessful on Friday.
Dobbins pleaded not guilty to murder in June and is being held without bail in the Aroostook County Jail.
The medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Suitter testified on the first day of Geary’s bind-over hearing on April 12 that the victim suffered 21 blunt-force trauma blows, mostly to the head, which appeared to have been inflicted by a hammer, and 10 stab wounds to the head and back.
Geary also testified about the night of the killing, blaming much of what happened on Dobbins and stating that he was pressured to participate.
Geary said he spent most of the late afternoon of March 1, 2015, drinking vodka and smoking pot at Dobbins’ home until he passed out drunk and “vomited several times.”
He testified that he asked to be taken home as he had a 6 p.m. curfew and got into a car with Dobbins and Dobbins’ mother. The two were dropped off a short distance from the Suitter home.
Geary testified that they took a detour to Suitter’s home in order to buy drugs and added that he had never seen Suitter before. He said that Dobbins, who was dressed in a long black quilted coat, knocked on Suitter’s door and when the victim opened it, Dobbins told him that they had crashed their car and needed to use the phone.
When Suitter turned around to let them into the home, Geary testified, Dobbins pulled a hammer out of his jacket and began striking him. After Dobbins was done, Geary said, Dobbins started rifling through the mobile home.
Geary then testified that Dobbins told him to “stab the guy” with a knife that Dobbins had given him earlier that day because he knew Geary collected knives.
Geary said that he “tried to stab him” but the knife didn’t open all the way, and he instead cut himself, which angered Dobbins. Dobbins then took the knife and stabbed the victim, according to Geary.
Dobbins then got behind the wheel of Suitter’s truck and drove off but crashed the vehicle in a snowbank. Dobbins and Geary later were picked up by Dobbins’ father, Geary testified.
Two friends of Suitter later discovered his body when they went to check on him.
Culbertson, Geary’s attorney, maintained during the hearing that the murder was a “drug-related robbery.”
Culbertson could not be reached for comment Friday evening.
