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BANGOR — A South Berwick man will serve seven years in prison with four years probation for the death of University of Maine student Jordyn Bakley, 20, of Camden, on Jan. 30, 2010.
At the conclusion of his sentencing hearing Wednesday at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor, Cheney was taken into custody and escorted from the courtroom. Family members waved to him, shouting goodbyes.
His mother, Pamela Fife, yelled, “I love you, baby.”
Cheney was convicted of manslaughter in July 2011 for Bakley’s death, but sentencing was delayed when his attorney, William Bly, contested the conviction in September based on allegations of jury tampering and asked the court to either produce the jurors or grant Cheney a new trial. Superior Court Justice William Anderson did not find evidence to support Bly’s allegations.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but the judge suspended all but seven of those years. Anderson deliberated for approximately half-an-hour after listening to hours of often-tearful testimony from members of both Bakley’s and Cheney’s families.
While addressing the judge, J.C. Bakley, Jordyn’s father, held up a small, blue velvet bag in his right hand, his back to the audience.
“This is all I have left, judge. This is my daughter. This is our daughter. This is all I have left,” he said. “This is what I have to hug.
“I will never experience seeing her graduate from college. I will never dance with her at her wedding,” he continued. “I will remember, however, Jan. 24, the last day I saw her in Orono. She was so pretty.”
University of Maine Dean of Students Robert Dana spoke to how students were affected by Bakley’s death.
“There was an immediate pall,” he said. “The circumstances of Jordyn Bakley’s death have devastated the campus and continue to do so today.”
Bakley would have graduated from UMaine at the end of 2010’s spring semester. She was studying elementary education and arranged another major in women’s studies shortly before her death. Dana said she worked in the Marketplace in the Memorial Union, adding that she was always smiling.
“When we graduated Jordyn’s class … she was palpably, of course, not there,” Dana said. “Her absence at that seminal event, even many, many months after [her death], was profound.”
J.C. Bakley also spoke about Cheney’s silence throughout the proceedings. Cheney did not speak at the sentencing hearing.
“We never heard Mr. Cheney … step into that box and say he didn’t do it,” J.C. Bakley said. “Why would you not get up there and tell us all that you did not kill Jordyn?”
At another point while addressing Anderson, J.C. Bakley turned to Cheney, who sat between Bly and Chuck Taitt, a member of the defense counsel.
“How could you leave another human being in the road for dead?” he asked Cheney.
Cheney did not respond.
“I saw no remorse. I expected none,” J.C. Bakley said after sentencing.
“It’s painful that a human being could behave in that manner,” said Louise Bakley, Jordyn’s mother, who remained silent during the hearing.
When asked if an apology from Cheney would have alleviated any pain, she shook her head.
“Not today,” she answered.
Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy initially asked for a longer sentence, claiming that suspending part of any sentence should be difficult for the court to consider based on Cheney’s conduct during the trial and subsequent hearings.
“His conduct, judge, after this trial has been over, does not speak well,” Almy said, pausing for a moment before continuing. “Or, may I say, it does speak volumes.”
He argued extensively against suspension of any portion of Cheney’s sentence.
“It is one thing to put the state to their proof. It is another to sit there and watch another person being accused of something you did and never saying, ‘Stop,’” Almy said, referring to the claims the defense made during Cheney’s trial in July that Bakley’s boyfriend, Chester Ruth, could have been responsible for her death.
Ruth denied the allegations during trial and has since left Maine, according to his mother, Karen Federle, who attended the sentencing hearing and spoke on his behalf.
She described Bakley and Ruth as high school and college sweethearts and said her son was devastated by her death.
“First there were the tears — months and months of that — and I cried right along with him,” Federle said, adding that Bly’s accusations came as a blow. “My son left Maine in a wounded state declaring he would never set foot in Bangor again.
“You see, he became a victim too.”
Bakley’s father also spoke about Ruth, saying he could not remember his daughter ever mentioning anything that could later imply Ruth could be culpable in her death.
J.C. Bakley described the phone call he received from a member of the Camden Police Department, a family friend, who told him to call Orono police Captain Josh Ewing, who informed him of Jordyn’s death.
He and his wife were shopping just outside of Boston with their younger son, J.C. Bakley said, when he made that call. He recalled standing in a shopping mall as Ewing asked him when he had last spoken to his daughter.
“We had to make the trip [home] with nothing but our thoughts. There wasn’t much conversation, as I recall. We made the decision not to tell our son what had happened until we got home,” he said.
Ewing attended the hearing but did not speak, sitting just behind the Bakleys in the audience.
“All I do is hope that this provides some sort of solace for the family,” he said outside the courthouse.
Members of Cheney’s family also spoke of pain the trial has caused. Fife said during the hearing that her son is “an exceptional human being.”
“It’s with a heavy heart that I stand here today,” she said. “I offer the tragedy of Garrett and Jordyn up to God.”
She asked Anderson to take her son’s “goodness” into account when imposing a sentence.
Travis Manning, Cheney’s older brother, and Cheney’s father, Harlan Cheney Jr., both turned from the podium while addressing the court to face the audience to express condolences to the Bakley family for the loss of Jordyn.
“I’ve watched him teaching my kids the same lessons he’s taught me,” Manning said, pausing for a moment as his voice grew strained. “As Garrett’s big brother, I cannot say enough what a wonderful person he is.
“I’m proud of him, and I’m proud to be his brother,” he continued before leaving the podium, his eyes red.
After the hearing, Bly said Cheney plans to appeal his conviction, which he could not do until a sentence was imposed. Bly said he will submit the notice of appeal but someone else will be the attorney for the appellate process.
“Mr. Cheney has maintained his innocence since Day One,” he said after the hearing. “I think this has to be totally debilitating for him.”
Cheney’s family members did not address the press after the hearing.
Bakley died in a hit-and-run accident on Middle Street in Orono, where she lived. Her body was found by a Bangor Daily News deliveryman around 5:40 a.m.
Cheney was charged with operating under the influence, leaving the scene of an accident and manslaughter. Around 3:30 a.m. that morning, Cheney drove off Interstate 95 near Etna and was arrested for operating under the influence.
An integral piece of evidence in the trial was the grille on Cheney’s 2003 Chevrolet Silverado. Pieces of the grille were found on Bakley’s body, and those pieces matched the gaps in the grille still on the truck. He turned himself in to the Orono Police Department in April 2010.
