BANGOR, Maine — When Kyle Dube, the man accused of killing her 15-year-old daughter, was escorted into a packed courtroom Wednesday, Kristine Wiley stayed on her feet.
Everyone but the camera operators sat down when Superior Court Justice William Anderson said, “Please be seated.”
A weeping Wiley remained standing, clutching her daughter Nichole Cable’s panda bear pillow, while friends, family and supporters sat in the seats behind her. Jason Wiley eventually coaxed his wife into her seat and held her head to his chest to console her.
Dube, 20, was charged Tuesday in connection with Cable’s death on May 12 in Glenburn, the town where she lived. Clad in jeans and a white T-shirt, Dube made his first court appearance Wednesday at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor.
Dube, a resident of Orono, did not enter a plea to the charge of intentional or knowing murder because he has not yet been indicted by a grand jury.
The judge ordered that Dube be held without bail until a hearing can be scheduled this summer to determine if he is eligible to be released.
A trial date was not set.
Cable died May 12, the day she disappeared, according to the complaint. The medical examiner’s office confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the body discovered late Monday in a wooded area of Old Town has been identified as Cable.
Details about her death and what led investigators to Dube were not released Wednesday. At the request of defense attorney Stephen Smith of Bangor, Anderson sealed the affidavit that contains those details until after Dube is indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury. It next meets Wednesday, May 29.
Smith told the judge that the release of the affidavit might prejudice the pretrial proceedings. He also said he was concerned about his client’s safety at the Penobscot County Jail, where Dube has been since Friday, when he began serving a 90-day sentence on charges related to a high-speed chase last summer.
“Death threats have been made against him,” the defense attorney told reporters outside the courthouse.
Note the passivity of language here. This will raise questions, including how one might even reach Dube to make a threat. If it was through the subject, why not simply state so?
The passivity employed is then followed up with a question since a reporter may have caught the passive language:
When asked about specific threats, Smith said they had been made online through social media but not directly to his office.
Here it was on line. The lack of specificity will continue to raise questions. Did someone write that they wish he would get the death penalty? Did someone write that they wish they could kill him?
Next note this:
Sheriff Glenn Ross said Wednesday afternoon that Smith had not relayed concerns for his client’s safety to him or his staff. The sheriff said that Dube was moved to protective custody in the maximum security section of the jail as a precaution Monday night after Cable’s body was discovered. He also said that Dube was on suicide watch over the weekend because he was crying when he came into the jail.
Ross said that Dube would remain isolated from other inmates for the time being.
Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson, who is prosecuting the case, said at an impromptu press conference after Dube’s initial appearance that the autopsy on Cable’s body had been completed but results would not be available for several days while the medical examiner’s office awaited test results.
Benson said that the evidence would show that Dube was using electronic media but declined to say whether he was communicating with Cable on the Internet or through social media sites such as Facebook. When asked if Dube had used the social media sites to facilitate his alleged crime, Benson refused to comment.
The girl disappeared from her home the night of May 12 and was reported missing the next morning. More than 500 people turned out Sunday to help search for clues to the teen’s disappearance.
Cable’s family declined to comment Wednesday after Dube’s court appearance. Cable’s mother, with a jacket covering her face, was ushered out of the courthouse to a waiting truck by her husband and other family and friends.
If convicted of murder, Dube faces between 25 years and life in prison.
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