State of Maine v. Raymond Ellis Jr., 339 A.3d 794

Raymond Ellis Jr. was convicted of Class A robbery and Class C possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, stemming from an armed robbery of the Big Apple convenience store in Madison, Maine, on August 5, 2023.
Ellis, wielding a handgun, and a juvenile carrying a sawed-off shotgun robbed the store while a third person acted as lookout.
Ellis did not call the store clerk, the sole eyewitness, as a defense witness; neither did the prosecution.
The trial court gave a standard instruction telling the jury not to speculate about testimony from witnesses who were not called.
Ellis was sentenced to twenty-five years (all but twenty suspended) for robbery and three years concurrently for firearm possession, with the sentence influenced in part by the court's finding that he failed to take responsibility for his actions.
On appeal, Ellis challenged the absence of a missing-witness jury instruction and the use of his failure to take responsibility as an aggravating sentencing factor.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Missing-witness jury instruction	Ellis: Jury should infer missing witness would not corroborate State	State: Such inferences not permitted; violates precedent	Court reaffirmed precedent: No inference based on missing witnesses
Jury instruction prohibiting speculation	Ellis: 'No-inference' instruction violated his constitutional rights	State: Standard and proper instruction to avoid jury speculation	Court found instruction was proper and protected defendant's rights
Double-counting firearm in sentencing	Ellis: Brandishing firearm counted as aggravator at both steps	State: Allowable if used for different purposes at each step	Court did not reach this; resentencing required for other reasons
Failure to take responsibility as aggravating factor	Ellis: Was penalized for going to trial and remaining silent	State: Agreed this was error, unsupported by affirmative evidence	Court held sentence invalid; defendant cannot be punished for right to trial/silence

State v. Brewer, 505 A.2d 774 (Me. 1985) (establishes that no inference may be drawn from a party's failure to call a witness in a criminal case)
State v. Farnham, 479 A.2d 887 (Me. 1984) (defendant cannot be punished with a harsher sentence for exercising right to trial)
State v. Grindle, 942 A.2d 673 (Me. 2008) (right to silence and how lack of remorse must be affirmatively evidenced to count in sentencing)
State v. Russell, 303 A.3d 640 (Me. 2023) (no error in refusing jury instruction inviting jury to focus on police investigation omissions)
State v. Brockelbank, 33 A.3d 925 (Me. 2011) (review of sentencing law questions is de novo)