Cormier boasts about murdering Mike
When [another man] didn’t want to go along, he made threats to him, discussing a homicide that he had been involved with.
And what did he say to [this man]? He killed Mr. Cochran by burning his camp down.
My other three children. On the left is Mike’s youngest brother, Shawn, his sister Coralee, and his older brother, Derry,
taken at the Federal Courthouse in Portland the day Lionel Cormier
was sentenced.
The news reported on June 30, 2005 that "one of Maine’s most violent career criminals was sentenced to 34 years in prison—a virtual life sentence for Cormier because of his health problems. It was also reported that his criminal history in Maine extended back more than 30 years. Cormier’s convictions ranged from kidnapping to robbery and included acts such as cutting off the ear of one East Corinth victim and bragging that he had tied another victim to a toilet and burned the house down around him."
Federal prosecutor Malone said, “Cormier also bragged to others that he had killed Micheal Cochran in 1981 in Dedham, a murder for which he and others were acquitted but has never been solved.”
This was erroneous information—the State of Maine never even questioned Cornier about Mike’s murder. Cormier said this to the judge during his sentencing.
The news reported that I was in the courtroom on Tuesday to watch Cormier's sentencing. It quoted me as saying that I was “glad Cormier would spend the rest of his life behind bars” and that “I knew he had killed my son ...”
The BDN was evidently informed of their incorrect statement and printed this correction in a later edition:
A story on Page B1 in Wednesday’s editions on the sentencing of Lionel Cormier in U. S. District Court in Portland incorrectly reported that Cormier had been acquitted of murder charges in the 1981 killing of Micheal Cochran in Dedham. Cormier never was charged with or acquitted of that murderOn September 14, 2005, I spent three hours on the phone with Coleman discussing Mike’s murder and the two other men involved in his murder. I was so encouraged, believing that now I would soon see the arrests of Paul Pollard and Percy Sargent. Coleman had promised to solve the case but he walked off the case and went to work as security guard for the governor of Maine.