GUILTY ME - Eric Williams, 35, & Bonnie Royer, 26, murdered, Manchester, 25 Dec 2015

AUGUSTA — The couple found shot to death early Christmas morning on a dirt road in Manchester apparently had been together only for the past several months or so.

Eric Williams, 35, and Bonnie Royer, 26, were found dead by police responding to a 911 call one of them made at 3:30 a.m. Dec. 25. The couple was in a sport utility vehicle on Sanford Road in Manchester, not far from where they were living on Easy Street in north Augusta. According to the medical examiner’s office, they died of gunshot wounds, and police are investigating it as a double homicide. Royer’s father, Paul Mansir Jr., of Whitefield confirmed that the two were boyfriend and girlfriend.

A longtime neighbor of Eric Williams said the relationship was relatively new and that prior to that, Williams had been in a relationship with a different woman for years. Both the SUV in which he died and a Harley Davidson featured prominently on his Facebook page were registered in both their names.

Williams and Royer lived at 18 Easy St., a home owned by Williams’ parents Jeff and Susan Williams of Winthrop. Messages left for his parents have not been returned.

Ralph Sargent, whose backyard adjoins that of Williams’ Easy Street home, watched Eric Williams grow up. Sargent, 80, referred to him as “Little Eric,” in contrast to Sargent’s own grandson “Big Eric” born about two months earlier.

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A New York man was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of murder in the drug-related shooting deaths of an Augusta couple on Christmas Day, Maine State Police said.

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Officials say a Maine couple found dead in a parked SUV on Christmas morning had been shot, and authorities are now investigating the case as a double homicide.

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David Marble Jr., 29, of Rochester, appeared before a Superior Court justice at the Augusta Judicial Center and was formally charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Eric Williams, 35, and Bonnie Royer, 26, both of Augusta. He did not enter a plea during the brief appearance.
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Police have said the killings are drug-related, but have not offered more details about the case. An affidavit about the case remained sealed Wednesday.

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David Marble Jr. appeared in court Augusta for a hearing earlier this week. His trial was set for July 13.

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The double homicide in a rural area of Manchester early Christmas morning was revenge for a burglary and tied intricately to illegal drugs and firearms dealings, court documents show.

Those documents were released Tuesday afternoon, shortly after a New York man pleaded not guilty to charges that he killed two Augusta residents about 3:30 a.m. as they sat in a Chevrolet Trailblazer on Sanford Road.

Marble, 29, who most recently lived on Sewall Street in Augusta and who used the nickname “Dee Money,” had been indicted Feb. 18 by a Kennebec County grand jury on charges of intentional or knowing murder for causing the deaths of Eric Williams, 35, and Bonnie Royer, 26, on Dec. 25, 2015, with the use of Sig Sauer P250 pistol.

Marble also was indicted on a charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. The indictment cites his prior convictions in Monroe County, New York, for robbery and possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell.

A 12-page affidavit seeking an arrest warrant for Marble indicates that he believed Williams had robbed his apartment just two hours earlier while Marble was being driven to the Portland area on a drug run.

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On Friday, Justice Michaela Murphy granted the motion for change of venue without hearing arguments and allowed Luke Rioux and Mark Peltier to withdraw as attorneys.

She explained to Marble, 31, of Augusta and formerly of New York, that Rioux had realized that he had a conflict because he previously represented someone involved in the case.

The change of venue request, filed by one of Marble’s previous attorneys, Pamela Ames, says too much pretrial publicity for the case involving the man whose nickname is Dee Money would make it hard to select a local jury.

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At Friday’s proceeding, Murphy told Marble that he would be provided with a list of attorneys available to do homicide defense in Portland, and that she would take his preference into consideration in appointing successor counsel.

Murphy told him that the trial would be in Cumberland County, likely sometime late fall. Marble said he understood what was happening and that it could delay proceedings.

Marble had been scheduled to go to trial in July in Kennebec County.

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David W. Marble Jr. shot an Augusta couple each in the head as he sat behind them in an SUV early Christmas morning 2015, prosecutors said Tuesday as the murder trial of Marble began in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland.

But Marble’s attorney told jurors that the state won’t be able to present any forensic evidence tying Marble to the crime – the murder weapon has never been found and prosecutors haven’t located Marble’s fingerprints or DNA in the SUV or his shoeprints in the sand next to the vehicle.

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Arguments in David Marble Jr.’s trial for the murder of Eric Williams and Bonnie Royer finished around noon Wednesday, after more than a week of testimony. By around 5 p.m., the jury had not yet reached a verdict, and Justice Michaela Murphy dismissed them for the day.

The jury is scheduled to resume deliberation at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

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“In David Marble’s game of chess, he’s run out of moves,” Marchese said in closing. She referred repeatedly to testimony indicating Marble’s cellphone was located that night along a route to and from the Summerhaven gravel pit where the bodies were found, and to testimony by Timothy Bragg, who fingered Marble as the shooter. Bragg said he drove Marble from the scene, and he admitted buying two firearms for Marble, one of which was determined to be the murder weapon.

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Marble’s attorney, Jon Gale, told jurors that the state has no forensic evidence tying Marble to the crime.

“They did not provide you with hard evidence to convince you that David Marble killed these people,” Gale said. He noted that the murder weapon never was found and that Bragg said Marble threw it into the Kennebec River in Augusta. Gale also said investigators haven’t located Marble’s fingerprints or DNA in the SUV or his shoe prints in the sand next to Williams’ vehicle. Gale also said investigators focused too soon on Marble as the lone suspect and that Marble wanted to break someone’s jaw rather than kill someone. He also said Bragg changed the stories he told police, and that police should have focused more on an individual referred to in court only as “Metro,” who had ridden to and from the slaying scene in the front seat of Bragg’s car.

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David Marble Jr. was found guilty Thursday of murdering an Augusta couple on Christmas morning in 2015.

Around 11 a.m., a Cumberland County jury returned two guilty verdicts for the murders of Eric Williams and Bonnie Royer after less than a day of deliberation and a week and a half of trial testimony.

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Sentencing of New York man convicted last month of murdering an Augusta couple over a drug-related burglary is scheduled for Oct. 5 at the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland.

David Marble Jr., 32, also known as “D-Money,” was convicted by a Cumberland County jury on July 19 of killing Eric Williams, 35, and Bonnie Royer, 26, on Christmas morning 2015 in Manchester.

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