Transcript
Hi, City Confidential listeners. I'm Alice LaCour. And before we get into this week's episode, I just want to remind you that episodes of City Confidential as well as the A and E classic podcast, I Survived, Cold Case Files, and American Justice are all available ad free on the new A and E crime and investigation channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now, on to the show. This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing for some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Portland, Maine. The picture postcard gateway to vacation land. A town so chock full of quaint key side shops and nautical themed restaurants that it's tempting to write off the fishing travelers and taverns as mere window dressing. But in the summer of nineteen ninety seven, when a drunken old port scuffle escalated into a deadly shootout, Portland got a shocking reminder that a real waterfront can be a very rough place. From the pulsating streets of big cities to Main Street USA, no neighborhood is safe from the unthinkable. These are the stories of innocence lost, of communities changed forever. This is City Confidential. Perched on a peninsula jutting into Casco Bay, Portland is a classic seaport town. Everywhere you look, there are stunning views of craggy coasts and deep blue water. Or boutiques and art galleries, trendy restaurants and hole in the wall bars. There's a real fish market down by the docks and an uptown arts district. Quaint Victorian architecture lines its steep narrow streets. Eight blocks in the heart of town, jam packed with bars like the Old Port Tavern, gritty McDuff's and the Ale House. The Old Port is Portland's favorite hangout. Even underage kids, they may not be able to drink, but they can still hang out. Sullivan Rizzo is an officer with the Portland Police Department. The kids wanna hang around the bar scene, but they can't go in the bars. So they're just sitting around, and they're in groups of six or eight or 10 sometimes, and you can't get down the sidewalk. However, not every teenager in the old port dreams of the day they can legally buy a beer. Sometimes, they dream of buying the whole bar. Sabino Raya was a typical Portland kid from a blue collar, close knit Italian family. At age 26, he still lived a few blocks from mom and dad, just across the back cove of Casco Bay in the working class Deering neighborhood. Jason Wolf is a former reporter for the Portland Press Herald. Real old world family. Cimino's mother, did not speak real strong English. Father, hardworking father, owned a plumbing company. In 1990, after his father, Salvatore, had a heart attack, Sabino dropped out of college to help with the family business. Sabino's heart wasn't really in it though, as his girlfriend Nicole Brown recalls. He always wanted his own bar. That's what he what he had told me. That was like a dream of his to own his own business. He had his own apartment building and then he invested in his own bar. He had worked for bars for years before being a bouncer and bartender. Average build, soft spoken, he may not have been the stereotypical bouncer, but that didn't mean he wasn't good at it. Sean Slaughter is an old port regular. He wasn't, you know, your typical, you know, meathead bouncer that just wanted to rattle and throttle people. He was the kind of guy that would just, you know, talk and, you know, be like, you know, if there was problems, he would be, you know, really cool and calm about it, and, you know, he'd get the situation under control without having to get violent. Working after hours as a bouncer and bartender, by 1995, he'd saved up enough money to buy his own bar. Sabino's wasn't the fanciest place in the Old Port, but it was quite an accomplishment for its 24 year old proprietor and namesake. Sabino's bar, was an underground bar. Small, but it was nice. It had a couple of pool tables. There was a small stage area for bands to play. And Sabino's bar was soon popular with old port regulars like Bill Wilcox. All the bars he bounced at, he made a lot of friends and this and that. And then when he opened his bar, of course, a lot of the customers that went to the other bars went to his bar. Many of the customers were old buddies of Sabino, including Kevin Panett, Dana Matthews, and Nick Patinoed. For a while, Nick even worked for Sabino as a bouncer and doorman. Dennis Patinode is Nick's brother. Nick did odd jobs for him. And I mean, they were every time we were selling the Old Port, that's where they'd end up. Him and his friends were at Sabino's. The Old Port's rowdy reputation certainly didn't keep him away. Kevin Panett and Dana Matthews had grown up in a truly rough place. Portland's Sagamore Village housing project. Michael Chitwood is the former Portland chief of police. Sagamore Village is an interesting area. For years, we had a lot of problems there. I mean, when I first came here, police or fire engines wouldn't go in there by themselves. Nick, Kevin, and Dana were all tough kids. They'd been in their share of fights and had more than a few run ins with the law. I've run into them a few times, in the Sagamore Village area, drinking or something or just hustling around, but I don't recall them ever being a big, huge problem. By their twenties, all three men had records. It was mostly minor. Traffic violations, public intoxication, driving on suspended licenses. There were also a few more serious charges like assault and petty theft, which according to friends and family, didn't necessarily make them bad guys. Adrienne Roberts is Nick Patineau's former girlfriend. Well, they were young. You know, when boys will be boys, they like to party and go down the old board. And, but for the most part, they were all good guys and didn't mean any harm. They all had families and, but they like to party. I mean, everyone does when they're younger. Geraldine Panett is Kevin's mother. At that age, most kids do and will scrapble here and there. And it's a it's a normal part of growing up. And in the summer of nineteen ninety seven, there were signs that as they progressed into their twenties, the three friends were growing up. For instance, Dana Matthews and his girlfriend Amy Dobson had a young daughter and another on the way. There was no separating those two. That was daddy's pride and joy right there, and they spent all their time together. That was his sunshine. That's actually, you know, what he called her. You know? Even the nights that he went out, he would come home. He would wake her up, and they'd get something to eat and drink, and they'd kick back and watch cartoons all night together, and then they'd sleep all day together. Nick Patino had a child too. Although his relationship with the child's mother was a stormy, on again, off again affair. Earlier that year, they'd split up and Nick began dating Nicole Brown, another Old Port regular. I dated him even though I was warned not to. But I'm one of those people that thinks I can change other people. I can help you be a better person and I just I couldn't. One of my stipulations with him was I'll date you but you can't get in any fights and no drug use and stealing. And he couldn't handle any of them. The relationship lasted a mere three weeks, just long enough for Nick to give Nicole a CD player for her truck and introduce her to Sabino Raya. Nicole soon took a waitressing job at Sabino's bar, and after a few weeks, took an interest in her new boss. He didn't care what he said. He was and I'm the same type of person. You know, we say whatever we think. And at first, it irritated me because I'm the same way. But then I really liked him. In early June of ninety seven, the couple started dating quietly. After all, Nicole was the ex girlfriend of one of Sabino's best customers. We kept our relationships a secret. Nobody knew about it. It. The even his best friend didn't know we were actually seeing each other. Nick Patineau, however, had his suspicions. Nick had suspected and was constantly bothering us. Down in the bar, at my other job, just haunted me. Everywhere he knew, I hung out. He was waiting to see if I was with Sabino. He'd ride by Sabino's house to see if my vehicle was there. He had hired a girl to come and beat me up to steal a CD player. And on the night of 06/23/1997, when Nick Patineau ran into Nicole and Sabino at the Old Port Tavern, he finally had his proof. What happened next? Nobody in the Old Port or the rest of Portland would soon forget. That night, Nick Patineau, Kevin Panett, and Dana Matthews were walking into the old port tavern for a few drinks. They ran right into Sabina Raya and Nick's ex girlfriend, Nicole Brown, drinking at the bar. It was probably 10:30, eleven o'clock when Nick and his crew showed up. And Nick immediately was on him. You know, just, are you going out with her? What are you doing? I know our truck's there. I know she's there. Caught by Nick, there was nothing the couple could do to hide their relationship. Sabino finally said, yes. We're seeing each other. You know, leave us alone. And we don't want any problems. We just wanna, you know, go out. And Nick was like calling me all kinds of names saying, you know, you can have her. I don't want her and just going on and on. There was, however, one thing Nick wanted. The CD player he'd given Nicole a month earlier. Bill Stokes would serve as prosecutor in the case that followed the events of that night. Patnaud takes it into his head that he wants a CD player back, and he wants it now. And that sort of starts in motion. There are there's pushing, there's shoving, there's words, there's threats. Drunk, angry, and backed up by his two buddies, Nick followed the couple out of the bar, itching for a fight. Sabino, as usual, did his best to keep the peace. Nick was calling me names and said he wanted a CD player back and I said not until I get my $50 and my two CDs. And Sabinho's just trying to get me to give it to him. But he told Nick to come the next day. He says I'll give it to you tomorrow. Don't come tonight. You know, come tomorrow, you I'll give it to you. I'll make sure she gives it to you. Sabino tried to diffuse the situation. You know, come tomorrow. Come when you're sober. Come come in the light of day. Let's talk. We don't want any trouble. Nicole, on the other hand, was as worked up as Nick. I was really just running my mouth. I'd had a few drinks, and I was telling Nick off. And then the fight just it just started. Dana come up, and he said, Nick, I don't know what your problem is. I don't know what you want this b***h for anyway. And Sabino put his hand up. Dana slapped Sabino in the face and then grabbed him and spun him around and slammed him up against the fence. And that's when I ran in and told Noelle to call the cops. At the first mention of the police, Nick, Kevin, and Dana fled. Sabino, with little injured except his pride, also called it a night. He and Nicole drove home across the bridge to his house in in East Deering. By the time the police turned up at the Old Port Tavern, all five of the former friends were long gone. Then, a few minutes later, a call came in reporting gunshots in East Deering When patrolman Sullivan Rizzo and two other Portland Officers pulled up outside Sabino Raya's house at 29 Arcadia, they weren't taking any chances. I had taken my shotgun out, and I was coming down with Officer Bowden, and we had decided that two of us were gonna go to the back of the house. And one of us would go down the front side of the house for tactical reasons. And as we were going down Arcadia Street, we heard a muffled shot. The officers and the 911 caller weren't the only ones who heard the shots. Inside the house, Nicole Brown had just gone to bed. Awakened by the gunfire, she ran to the window. Outside, lying on the ground next to her truck were Dana Matthews and her ex boyfriend Nick Patino. I saw Nick's legs laying on the ground. I just saw his legs. They were kinda in the light still. And I just stared at him and I kept saying get up, get up, get up. I did it was like a big, like a movie, almost like it wasn't happening. Neither Nick nor Dana would be getting up. They were dead, shot in the head at point blank range, as was Kevin Panett, a few yards away, lying just outside the door to the house. There was, however, one person in Sabino's yard who was very much alive, Sabino Raya. You could see off in the distance, near a pickup truck was, what looked like two bodies, but it was so dark that you really couldn't tell. And at that point, I mean, I have a flashlight on the shotgun. It's attached right to it, and Officer Bowden had his had a handgun with his flashlight, and, we decided not to illuminate the area for tactical reasons. At the back of the house were two, motion sensors, four floodlights. When those things went on, I almost shot Sabino Ray out of sheer fright because the whole place lit up all of a sudden. And, he he was running around the corner at us. And I heard the cops. I saw the flashlights. Everybody's screaming at him. Get down on the ground. Within seconds, officers had Rya pinned on the ground. Officer bowed and secured him and found a, 22 automatic in his back pocket, which had jammed, which made me feel a little more comfortable because now I know that at least he couldn't have shot us at that point. The 22 was jammed, but it was also still warm. While officers cuffed him, the former bouncer did what he always did in a tight spot. He tried to talk his way out of it, or in this case, yell. He was yelling about, the people, he had to do it. They were murderers. They were murderers? That's not exactly how it looked to the police. They'd all but caught Sabino Raya standing over the three dead bodies with a smoking gun. But before everything was said and done, what started out as an open and shut case would wind up a free for all. Three people are dead after a shooting in an East Deering neighborhood. A late night argument here in North Deering. Three shots fired, three people killed, and one suspect under arrest. For Portland, as the news spread on the morning of June 24, the killings were shocking enough. But for friends of Nick, Kevin, and Dana, it was tough to say which was more unbelievable, that they were dead or who had pulled the trigger. And I'm like, Sabino? I'm like, Sabino did this? And I'm like, I was just dumbfounded. I don't I don't even I didn't know what to think. I was just shocked the fact that, you know, Dana had just been shot, and then they're telling me that Sabino had done it. I was shocked. I never saw him get angry at anybody or raise his voice. I never saw him get violent. I never saw him, you know, do anything that would, you know, make me think he'd be able to shoot and kill three people. Sabino, most of his friends thought, must have been provoked. That's certainly the way it sounded in the papers that morning. The details that came out at first was that he was defending himself against three people that were attacking him at his house. So I thought, well, you know, if that's what happened, then so be you. You have a right to defend yourself. Most of Portland agreed, and they agreed even more when the criminal records of the three dead men, complete with mugshots, appeared in the press. Not regular pictures, mugshots. And they just immediately went on how bad these guys were right in the beginning. And even the DA stressed on how bad they were. So, I mean, it was all going to Sabino's favor right from the beginning. These were a bad bunch of guys. The way Sabino told it, Nick, Kevin and Dana had showed up at his house drunk and belligerent and tried to take back the CD player. The argument turned violent, and Sabino did what he had to do to defend himself. But for Portland police, something about Sabino's claim of self defense didn't quite add up. All three victims had been killed with shots to the head at extremely close range. These guys were shot real close. The way it shows to me is that the, they were unaware of what was going on. People generally don't allow people to put guns touching their their temples. And so, what we obviously had to figure, how was he able to do this? How did Sabino get the drop on his alleged attackers? Well, for starters, Dana Matthews had been caught literally with his pants down. Matthews was standing by the truck, urinating. Pat Noad was inside the truck, and our investigation at that time showed that it looked like Matthews was initially shot point blank, which means the gun is right to the head. Shot goes down. Pat Noad, who's in the truck looking for the CD player, is backing out. He's also shot in the right side of the head. But Kevin Panett had apparently been shot inside his red Camaro, not near Sabino's steps where the police found his body. He's revving on the car, squealing the tires, just sitting there. And I see Sabino walk by me. We walked up to the car, and Kevin was kinda turned around looking in the back of the car, and Sabino leaned in and shot him. Afterwards, Sabino Rya dragged Kevin Panett's dead body to the steps. I think maybe that's what he was thinking about, is dragging the body into the house to look like maybe he was getting attacked in his house. Sabino also shot Dana Matthews a second time. The police figured it was the gunshot they heard while approaching the house. He doesn't explain the second shot. He says it happens. He stands over him and shoots him again because he makes some motion. Our version is that that's not what happened. He said he actually goes back to him because there's a contact wound. So he doesn't just stand over him. He actually has to press the gun into his skin. The contact wounds, moving Kevin's body and the second shot to finish Dana off, to the police, it added up to one thing, and it wasn't self defense. He was pissed at these guys. He had had enough of these guys. And he told them not to come over. He told them they weren't gonna get the CD. And they come over, and he was gonna deal with it. Sabino Raya was indicted on three counts of murder. When the details of the investigation hit the paper, Portland did a double take. What the police were telling us as the facts came out, it seemed a little odd that the idea of shooting a guy when he's urinating and shooting of another guy when he's sitting in his car, apparently driving away. You know, I think that kind of people could understand the concept of self defense, but weren't sure if this really fit that. And in a state famous for rugged, self reliant fishermen and backwoodsmen, the answers weren't necessarily obvious. There are probably a lot of people in rural Maine that would say, you know, just from people that I know that would say, you know, he was in his right there on his property. They came there with the intent to hurt him. Ultimately, it would be up to a jury to decide. And when the trial began on 12/08/1997, Portland expected it to be as knocked down drag out as any old port bar brawl. The defense certainly came out swinging. In his opening statement, Sabino's attorney, Jack Simmons, made the most of the three dead men's police records. Jack Simmons just dragged them through the mud. Through and through, just dragged them through the mud. Anything, any little tidbit of information that he could dredge up on them, he did. There were violent men. One of them, in fact, had hit a friend with a jagged glass and put a hundred and seventeen stitches, I believe, into his jugular. The man almost bled to death. And it wasn't just the things the defense attorney said. It was the way he said it. Patty Wilson is Nick Patino's mother. I remember him saying that every place these boys went, there was blood on the walls and there was blood on the floor. And I said, my god. And how can anyone talk about some, you know, people like that? They made them boys look like they were. Just horrible, horrible people that went around beating up everybody. For the families of the victims, it was hard to take. You had to sit there and just listen to what he had to say about them and not say anything about it. I'd I wanted to stand up and say, that's not true. That's not true. Don't say that. The testimony wasn't the only thing that kept the gallery riled up. Whether supporting the prosecution or the defense, the crowd, for the most part, knew one another. It was hard to see people sitting over there, you know, people that grew up right almost two two or three houses from us sitting with the Reyes family. You know, it's hard to see it. A lot of friends ain't friends now. Because certain people said certain things and made certain statements and, you know, someone on Sabino's side. One of Sabino's biggest supporters was his girlfriend Nicole Brown, the closest thing to an eyewitness in the case. Her testimony backed up Sabino's claim of self defense. I honestly believe that they would have probably beat him up if not killed him, you know, by beating him to death and went in and got me. I don't know if they would have hurt me. I I think Dana probably would have. I don't. It was a crazy night. On the trial's second day, the defense trotted out a piece of evidence they hoped would be the final word in their strategy of character assassination. Less than thirty minutes before the shootings, two men reported that they had been attacked. Their assailants were three young men in a red Camaro, later identified as Nick Patino, Dana Matthews, and Kevin Panett. They had ridden into the park looking for beer from two gay men. They pulled up to them, asked them for their beer. And the gay men said, you know, we don't have any beer. And they were drinking coffee, talking. So Nick and them got back in the car and drove off. They turned around, came back and started beating these guys. One of the gay men ran off, left his friend there. He didn't know what to do, he was scared, and his friend got beaten pretty bad. If the juror can't put themselves in the shoes of Sabina Raya, they can maybe put themselves in the shoes of the guy who is getting pounded on for no reason by these guys. It was the perfect setup for Sabino Raya's testimony. He took the stand on December 12 and swore that Nick, Kevin, and Dana were the real killers on Arcadia Street that night. He sat on the stand and explained what was in his mind at the time was he was gonna die. These guys are gonna kill him. And he and his eyes got big and you know, he looked at the jury and he told him, they were gonna kill me. And he had that kind of, sad, you know, puppy dog look. You know, he had no other alternative. Thankfully, he had a pistol on him and he could defend himself. In his closing statement, prosecutor Bill Stokes did his best to contain the damage. Sabino's story, he told the jurors, didn't quite square with the facts. Well, how does he get that close to them? To shoot them all in the head and not from a distance, but literally at arms you know, less than arms length and being able to put the gun in contact with each of their heads, if he's so afraid of them. When the case went to the jury on the afternoon of December 15, it looked like a toss-up. The prosecution thought based on the facts, they could get a conviction. So they were hitching their wagon to the facts, and the defense hitched their wagon to the character of the victims. Facts or character, whichever the jury would go for, they took their time deciding. At eight that evening, they recessed and went home for the night. The prosecution felt it was a good sign. My concern was that they'd be out and be back in a couple of hours. That would not have been a good sign, from our statement. That would indicate, you know, that they, were acquitting him quickly. Sabino Raya's attorney, Jack Simmons, on the other hand, was getting a little nervous. He'd done a thorough job of characterizing the victims as rampaging thugs. But would it be enough? I was never concerned that the jury would find him guilty of murder. I was concerned that given the nature of the deaths, the violence involved, that they might compromise and find him guilty of manslaughter. Although, as it turned out, a manslaughter charge was the least of Sabino Raya's worries. Most evenings in Portland revolve around the Old Port and its well stocked restaurants and bars. But on the evening of 12/16/1997, the whole town's attention was focused a few blocks north on the Cumberland County Courthouse. Inside, Sabino Raya was on trial for the murders of three men after a scuffle in the old Port. Friends and family of the three dead men flocked to the courthouse hoping for justice. But those hopes were dashed, one after another, when the jury foreman read off the individual verdicts on the charge of murdering each victim. I remember we all stood up. They told us to stand up and, one at a time. Kevin, not guilty. And then Dana, not guilty. And Nikki, not guilty. And I just went to pieces, and a lot of people did. I just couldn't believe it, you know. I just said, oh my god, you know. How can they say that Sabino isn't guilty of this crime? It was just horrible. My heart just dropped down to my feet. I thought I was gonna lose my mind. My son was murdered. Cold found some concern. Cold blood murder. And and this guy walks and killing two other people, like, three people and just walking away with not even it. Nothing. He didn't get nothing. No manslaughter charge. No finding of negligent homicide. Sabino Raya didn't get so much as a slap on the wrist. For the families of the three men he killed, it was a slap in the face. I mean, come on. You got pictures of children who'll never even see their own parents. And this man gets to walk away? You call that justice? They just spent a week listening to his sons being dumped on publicly in a very public trial, how bad they were. It was very difficult for them. And then to have this this guy acquitted, of their killings, you know, just sort of added, you know, salt in the wounds. The police and prosecutors were just as disappointed. To them, the victims' troubled pasts weren't enough to justify what Sabino Raya did. These guys were not choir boys. They weren't killers and they weren't, assassins. And at the time of the shooting, they were not doing anything aggressive or life threatening. Urinating, looking in the trunk for a CD player, and trying to escape. That don't mean you get shot and killed. The jury, of course, had seen it differently. For them, the character of the victims had been the deciding factor in Sabino's acquittal. The facts were that three young men were violent, were proud of being violent, and were threatening. They had no business being on Sabino's property. And the conscience of the community said that under these circumstances, Sabino was justified in doing what he did. Sabino Raya walked away a free man. That doesn't, however, mean he's walking the streets of Portland. In fact, most folks in town have no idea where he is, and those that do aren't telling. He pretty much disappeared. A lot of people speculated that he went to Italy where a lot of his relatives live. I heard that he was out in San Francisco. I honestly, you know, haven't seen or heard anything about it from him since the the, he he was acquitted. Nicole Brown has also left Portland, but not without regret. I loved it. It was a great city and great money, great fun. I had I had a good time there. I wish I could go back. Of course, if she did go back, it wouldn't be quite the same. For one, most of the old crowd is gone. Time, one way or another, has taken its toll. Whatever bar we were in, whether it was Sabino's, the Penguin, or anywhere, we had our corner. And there was always ten, fifteen of us. We were nobody could sneak up on us. Nobody could it was us. And now there ain't nobody. Either they married and settled down or they're dead. Which doesn't mean the Old Port is empty. During the summer months, the tourists outnumber the locals. Tourism is becoming more and more significant, and the forecast for the future is to expand the waterfront, dredge the harbor, and even being bring some of the bigger ships in. And the case of Sabino Raya became the perfect excuse to crack down on Old Port's notorious roughhousing. There's fewer bars than there used to be. The city has enacted ordinances to restrict the number of bars and and so by removing some of the bars, you've removed some of the trouble. It may be less rowdy now, but come Friday or Saturday night, the Old Port is as lively as ever. It's still Portland's favorite place to have dinner, listen to a band, and drink a few beers. And like any waterfront town, no night at the bar is complete without a few tall tales. The chance for the old salts to hoist a pint and swap stories about the one that got away. Only in Portland, don't assume they're talking about a fish.
Comments