12/01/2008
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Staff Writer
When the security alarm went off just before 3 a.m. on May 27, William Guerrette Jr. knew it wasn't a fault in the system. Something was gravely wrong.
"He said 'Someone is in the house,' and got out of bed," his wife, Melanie Guerrette, recalled. "He took two steps out (of the bedroom) and they were right there."
Armed with a machete, two people began what state-police officials have called a brutal attack on Guerrette, a former Maine legislator, and his youngest child, an 11-year-old girl, Nicole.
Nicole was in the hospital for six weeks; her father for eight weeks. The child who loves art and cheerleading now wears a helmet to protect a soft spot on her head where her skull was fractured and a part was removed after an infection in the bone developed.
Both have scarring on their arms and faces.
William Guerrette Jr. is missing a finger. He underwent surgery in August to repair a severed muscle just below his left eye socket so he could blink again.
The two people police have accused in the attack are Leo Rose Hylton, 18, and Daniel Fortune, 21, foster brothers who were living in Augusta. They are each charged with four counts of aggravated attempted murder of William and Nicole Guerrette -- two counts with extreme cruelty and two counts of pre-mediation -- and one count of attempted murder against the lives of Melanie, Ryan and Ashley Guerrette, as well as robbery, burglary and conspiracy to commit robbery.
Fortune is also accused of breaking into the Guerrette home in November 2007 and stealing a safe containing more than $111,000.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to all charges. If convicted, they could spend the rest of their lives in prison.
In the last six months, a family who once feared they would never be able to sleep in their own home again has not only moved back, but started their lives over in the form of a new business and returning to school.
Three months later
It's 10 a.m. on Aug. 14. Melanie and Nicole Guerrette are running late. On this sunny August morning, most kids are at camp, the swimming pool or riding bikes with friends.
Not Nicole Guerrette. This morning, she and her mother are going to the doctor's office, then to therapy, then to the pharmacy.
It's the third day the Guerrette family has been back at their Pittston home since the attack. Though the blood had been scrubbed away, remnants of the attack are still present: a wire connected to the security system is sticking out of the wall from someone pulling on it to cut it; a wall just outside of the master bedroom has an obvious seam where new drywall was put up to cover the holes the machete made; the master bedroom's floor is bare from the carpet being ripped up because it was saturated with blood.
It was right here that it started, Melanie Guerrette said, as she stood in the small foyer outside of her bedroom.
"They were right here," she said of the attackers. "This is where it started."
The attack, as Melanie Guerrette remembers, started immediately.
"He didn't have his gun with him at first," she said of her husband. "When he came back in to get it, he had been hacked so badly and bleeding ... and just screaming bloodcurdling screams."
She paused.
"I couldn't get those screams out of my head for months," she said quietly.
While attacking William Guerrette Jr., one of the invaders advanced into the master bedroom where Melanie Guerrette was.
She had locked a bathroom door where she was hiding, but hoisted herself through a window after she heard the door being kicked in. She crawled through the window and fell eight feet, breaking a rib as she hit the ground.
"They were coming to get us," she said. "I thought my whole family was dead."
After hearing the attack going on below her bedroom, Nicole got out of bed and ran out of her room. The attackers, Melanie Guerrette said, ran up the stairs to the landing in front of Nicole's room and turned the machete on her.
Ryan, then 18 and a high school senior, escaped through a basement door, ran around to the deck and hid under the patio furniture.
Ashley, then 16 and a sophomore, ducked under her bed and dialed 911, desperate for help. She remained under the bed until the Maine State Police arrived 20 minutes later, listening to the blows being dealt to her father and sister.
By the time local rescue crews and the Maine State Police arrived at the house, the attackers had left. The family remained inside and outside around the house, cowered in fear, two of them bleeding.
"Everything just changed," Ashley Guerrette said in July. "One minute, you're asleep in your bed, the next, you're sitting in a police car just wondering what happened."
The weeks following the attack were a blur, Melanie Guerrette said.
"Sometimes they seem so surreal. It's like they didn't happen," she said.
She and two of the couple's children, Ryan, now 19, and Ashley, now 16, shuttled between hospitals in Maine where Nicole and William Guerrette Jr. were being treated. Their oldest child, William Guerrette III, came home immediately with his wife.
Those first several weeks were often sleepless and wrought with worry for the entire family. William Guerrette Jr. suffered a stroke his first night in the hospital and the family, including his siblings and parents, prepared for the worst.
The Augusta area showed an outpouring of support for the family with bottle drives and pep rallies. In July, a benefit at Gardiner Area High School drew hundreds of people and raised $17,000 for the Guerrettes' medical bills.
Grateful for Nicole and William Guerrette's steady recovery and the showering of love and support from the community, the family still faced what seemed an insurmountable question: Can we go back home?
While watching her youngest child adjust the pink-and-white helmet protecting her fractured skull in August, Melanie Guerrette said that question was one that had to be wrestled with, and one she still struggles with.
The family thought about moving out of state. They had once lived in Alabama and they had a son and daughter-in-law who, until recently, lived in Utah. Moving could be an option, they debated.
"We'll never be totally safe here again," Melanie Guerrette said in August. "Nikki is even too scared to go into her room."
Nicole's bedroom walls were a deep azure and decorated with posters of Hannah Montana and the cast of "High School Musical." A caramel-colored teddy bear with an embroidered smile lay on the floor next to a heap of dolls and stuffed animals. Photographs of her Tigers cheerleading squad were tacked to a bulletin board.
It was a bedroom that, to the child affectionately called "Nikki", meant danger, fear and insecurity. She would often tell her mother that she wanted to move away and never come back to the house.
But Maine was also home to the Guerrettes. William Guerrette Jr. was born and raised in central Maine. He remains friends with many people from his youth and through his Mormon church.
"Would we feel safe even if we moved a million miles away?" Melanie Guerrette wondered out loud. "Probably not."
The family decided to take a unified stand. They would stay and rebuild the inside of the house -- and their lives.
Six Months Later
In November, William Guerrette Jr. looks like a new man.
Standing in the middle of his new business, China Lake Coin, he shares a joke with his brother, Glen, before helping a customer. His speech is clear and articulate. He's slowly gaining use of his left hand, where a finger was cut off.
More importantly, he is smiling.
"Everyone's getting better," he said of his family. "We're not back to normal, but we're getting better."
Guerrette is a self-described collector, especially rare coins, currency and baseball cards.
"I started collecting coins when I was eight and baseball cards when I was nine," he said. "In fact, I got my grandmother into it; we started collecting coins together."
Before the attack, Guerrette had been negotiating with his longtime friends Ingrid Parady and Frank Trask, previous owners of China Lake Coin when it was on Water Street in Hallowell, to buy the business so his friends could retire.
After Guerrette was released from the hospital, Parady thought there was little chance Guerrette would take over the business as planned, and she and Trask closed the shop's doors in August without a buyer.
Guerrette had suffered a stroke his first night in the hospital and faced months of speech therapy, physical therapy to walk again and occupational therapy to regain use of his hand. His walk was a shuffle and he often needed help to move. They could not imagine him being able to take over a business, Parady and Trask thought.
He shows an exceptional amount of quiet pride as he shows off his coin shop now, which opened about a month ago. He eagerly points out different rarities, such as oversized bills issued by Gardiner Bank in the 1800s.
Parady helps out at the store most days, Guerrette said.
"This has been something that I have loved doing for many years -- heck, it's why I got robbed in the first place," Guerrette said.
During a burglary at his home in November 2007, a safe was taken. The crime crossed Guerrette's mind when he thought about buying the coin shop.
"Oh sure, I thought about it, but we have a very good security system and camera," he said. "Like I said, collecting is something I love and I won't have it taken away from me."
"This business gives me something to do; it's very therapeutic," he said. "Plus, it sure beats sitting at home and dwelling on things. It helps me move forward."
Moving forward has been the Guerrettes' mantra since May. Rather than dwell on vengeance and anger toward the attackers, the family has instead focused on the future.
One of the hurdles of moving forward was moving home as planned. Memories of the attack still lingered in the hallways and upstairs landing of the home, causing flashbacks and nightmares for the family.
Help arrived from Scarborough.
Kat Powers had never heard of the Guerrettes until news reports about the attack appeared across the state.
The single mother of two and business owner was gripped with terror by the story, she said.
"I gasped, literally," Powers said. "I was shocked that something like this could happen. Heck, I'm still shocked that something like this could happen."
Powers, who owns The Designers Co-op, a full-service interior design store, with business partner Susan Dobrovolny, said it was never a question to help the Guerrette family put their home back in order.
"Sometimes, when something happens, you have no choice but to help," she said. "(Dobrovolny and I) just couldn't sit idly by."
Powers started to wrangle volunteers and donations from across central Maine, starting at the July benefit. Her vision was to refurbish the inside of the Guerrette home just enough that the places where the attacks happened would look new and different, but that the residence itself would retain its familiar charm.
People and businesses answered the call quickly, Powers said.
"People really got this," she said. "It was amazing to see businesses and people come together to help this family."
About 30 volunteers and more than a dozen businesses gathered at the Pittston home Sept. 6 and starting redecorating Ashley Guerrette's bedroom first. The basement bedroom needed to be refurbished because so much blood was spilled, it seeped under the floor outside of the master bedroom, through the ceiling on to her mattress and computer keyboard.
Work on the master bedroom, kitchen, upstairs landing and Nicole's bedroom followed.
"We met so many different people," Powers said. "There were neighbors, friends, folks from church; all these people came together for this family."
The Guerrettes returned home Sept. 27, days after Powers and Dobrovolny unveiled Nicole's new room to her, which was received by exclamations of joy from the little girl.
The bedroom is bright hues of pink, green, blue and purple. A painting and drawing desk sits in the corner. A loft and cubby space are in another corner.
More importantly, Melanie Guerrette said, her daughter is excited to be back in her bedroom.
"I just can't say enough good things about Kat Powers and everyone else who helped us," Melanie Guerrette said. "It's so good to be home. Kat is just awesome."
Moving back to the scene of the tragedy has had its difficult moments. The Guerrettes did not have one trick-or-treater this Halloween. A few of the children's friends no longer want to come to the house to play or spend the night.
"I think people feel a little nervous and uneasy," Melanie Guerrette said. "That's been hard, but we also need to respect how other people will feel. I mean, we understand."
Since moving back to the house, the family has essentially "moved into a fortress," Melanie Guerrette said.
The Guerrettes have also added to the family. A German shepherd guard dog trained to attack intruders joined the family many weeks ago. Though trained to be ferocious, the dog turns into a lovable blob of fur around Nicole.
"I feel so much better," Nicole said as she scratched the Shepherd behind the ears.
"Way, way better," her mother agreed. "Having this dog here makes all the difference in the world."
Life for the Guerrettes is slowly returning to normal, and while the six members embrace normalcy, they also realize there will be bumps in the road.
Nicole will continue to undergo surgeries on her skull. She will probably have to wear her helmet until next summer, her mother believes.
There is also the pending trial for Hylton and Fortune.
Over the course of six months, the Guerrette family has refrained to speak about the people accused of the attacks.
"Really, all I can say is that I wish none of this had ever happened," Melanie Guerrette said. "I wish that this hadn't happened to us, and this would not have to happen to them."
Meghan V. Malloy -- 623-3811, ext. 431
mmalloy@centralmaine.com
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