BANGOR, Maine — A local woman charged in connection with the stabbing death of her boyfriend last month was indicted Wednesday by the Penobscot County grand jury for intentional or knowing murder.
Gail Judd, 53, of Bangor allegedly stabbed Michael Drouin, 47, of Bangor on Feb. 22 in her Court Street apartment. She was charged with murder on Feb. 24.
Judd is being held without bail at the Penobscot County Jail. Last month, Superior Court Justice William Anderson ordered that she undergo a psychological evaluation to determine her competency to stand trial and whether there are other mental health issues that might affect her defense.
Her arraignment, originally scheduled for Monday, has been continued pending the outcome of that evaluation.
Drouin died as a result of a “stabbing-type wound that penetrated his upper chest area to a depth of approximately two to two and one-half inches and resulted in significant internal bleeding,” said an affidavit written by Bangor police Detective Joel Nadeau and filed Feb. 27 at the courthouse.
Judd allegedly told neighbors that she killed Drouin in self-defense after he raped her.
Drouin was found about 9:40 p.m. Feb. 22 on the bedroom floor of Judd’s apartment at 67 Court St. in Bangor, according to the affidavit. He was shirtless, wearing boxer shorts with his pants around his ankles. A knife, which appeared to have blood on the blade, was found in the kitchen sink, the affidavit said. Judd also appeared to have blood on her hands.
She was taken into custody a short time after police arrived at her apartment but passed out at the police station and was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center for treatment. Detectives from the Bangor Police Department questioned her there, according to the affidavit.
“‘I did not stab him to kill him, I hit him one little slice right there,’” she told investigators. “Judd then pointed to her left arm indicating that is where she stabbed him.”
She also told police that Drouin stabbed himself as she was leaving the apartment, the affidavit stated.
The story Judd told police appears to contradict the results of an autopsy performed Feb. 23 by Dr. Michael Ferenc, deputy chief medical examiner for the state of Maine. He observed in his report that “blood spatter configurations on the victim and his clothes, specifically his socks, appeared to have a downward direction of travel indicating that he was alive and standing at the time he sustained the blood-letting injury,” the affidavit stated.
If convicted, Judd would be the second member of her family to be imprisoned for murder. Her brother Jeffrey Cookson, 47, formerly of Guilford, is serving two consecutive life sentences for the 1999 execution-style shooting of his ex-girlfriend and the 21-month-old boy she was baby sitting.
Dover-Foxcroft Police Chief Dennis Dyer confirmed last month that Judd and Cookson are brother and sister.
Her criminal record, obtained from the Maine State Bureau of Identification, stretches back to 1984 and runs 48 pages. The majority of her convictions were for misdemeanors for which she was sentenced to jail time or ordered to pay fines. In 1997, however, she was sentenced to six years in prison, with all but two years suspended, for aggravated trafficking or furnishing scheduled drugs, a Class A felony.
Judd was well-known to Bangor police before she was arrested and charged with murder, according to Bangor Daily News archives. On Feb. 10, 2011, she threatened to jump out the window if police entered her Union Street apartment, Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said at the time. She had been yelling from inside the apartment when police arrived, Edwards said. She was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct.
After there was a suspicious fire at the apartment building a short time later, she was arrested early the next morning and charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass.
Judd was arrested again on Feb. 15, 2011, for violating her bail conditions after she allegedly caused a disturbance at the Rite Aid on Third Street.
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