AUGUSTA, Maine — After hearing from attorneys and family members, 23-year-old Dylan Ketcham of Gardiner was sentenced to 65 years in prison Tuesday afternoon.
His attorney, Steve Smith, said he couldn't comment on how his client was handling the sentence but did say they're disappointed.
"Dylan went to a very difficult situation. Young men make foolish decisions. In our view, this was clearly a self-defense situation," Smith said.
"The world is full of 20-somethings who don't kill people with firearms and don't hack people with machetes," state prosecutor Meg Elam. "We don't think he committed this awful crime because of his youth, we think he did it because he's a thoroughly dangerous person."
Ketcham was convicted of fatally shooting Jordan Johnson and attempting to kill Caleb Trudeau, instead leaving him with serious injuries from a machete on his arms, hands, and neck. The incident took place in 2020.
He was sentenced to 45 years for the murder conviction and another 20 for the attempted murder conviction, with four years of probation. If Ketcham were to have violated the probation, he would have been sent back to prison for another 10 years.
Trudeau was in the courtroom Tuesday, as well as Johnson's family. They declined to speak to the media, but state prosecutor Meg Elam said this serious sentence was the right call.
"It's fair to say their lives will never be the same, but I think they're relived that the case is over and that Ketcham received such a substantial sentence," she added.
Smith said he and his client plan to appeal this sentence.
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