BANGOR, Maine — A Guilford man who testified in a 2010 murder trial is facing drug charges in U.S. District Court and was denied bail Wednesday.
Willie W. Harper, 47, pleaded not guilty last week to one count each of distribution of oxycodone and distribution of heroin in August 2015.
In denying bail, U.S. District Judge John Nivison cited Harper’s history of substance abuse and his lengthy criminal history, which includes at least one conviction for a sex crime, in determining that he posed a “significant danger” to the community if released.
Details about Harper’s alleged drug activities are not included in court documents.
Harper, who moved to Dexter from Chicago in 1999 or 2000, testified about where Colin Koehler hid the weapon he used to kill 19-year-old Holly Boutilier on the Bangor waterfront on Aug. 8, 2009. Now 41, Koehler is serving a life sentence for murder at the Maine State Prison in Warren.
Harper was the last witness called by former Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson before he rested his case.
When asked by Benson if he had a criminal record, Harper quickly answered, “Hell, yeah.” When asked if it was long and filled many pages, he said, “It could fill this whole room.”
He told jurors that he was in jail from April 2009 until March 2010 and was sometimes put in the “hole” or locked in his cell because he “had trouble with authority” and did not get along with some of the corrections officers. Why Harper was in jail during that period was not explained in court, but according to previously published reports, he was awaiting trial on a gross sexual assault charge. He was found not guilty in March after a jury-waived trial and released.
Although Harper’s testimony was vague about whether Koehler had confessed to him that Koehler had stabbed Boutilier, Harper said that the defendant had told him he had hidden the knife in a wall by a church across
from Koehler’s Columbia Street apartment.
If convicted of the federal drug charges, Harper faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $1 million.