PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine man convicted of killing a 12-year-old girl more than three decades ago will seek a new trial based on new DNA test results. But Attorney General Aaron Frey said Monday that the new evidence hasn’t shaken his confidence in Dennis Dechaine’s conviction in the 1988 killing of Sarah Cherry. The tests exclude Dechaine’s DNA from several pieces of evidence found at the crime scene but were inconclusive on others. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court denied Dechaine’s three previous requests for a new trial. In the latest, the court concluded that new DNA evidence wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the original trial. Prosecutors contend there is plenty of other evidence that points to Dechaine’s guilt.
