A convicted murderer in Auburn, Maine, who was deemed by a judge to be too old to pose a threat to society, was convicted again for killing a woman in front of her twin sons.
Albert Flick, 77, was found guilty on July 17 in the death of Kimberly Dobbie.
According to the Sun Journal, in July last year, Flick stabbed 48-year-old Dobbie at least 11 times in broad daylight as her two 11-year-old twin sons watched. Dobbie died from blood loss.
The attack, which took place outside a laundromat in Lewiston, was captured on surveillance video. Jurors viewed the video during the trial, the Sun Journal reported.
Jury finds Albert Flick guilty of killing Kimberly Dobbie last year https://t.co/eFpVuiF6kg
— Christopher Williams (@cwilliamsSJ) July 18, 2019
Dobbie, who was staying at a homeless shelter, was being stalked by Flick, prosecutors said according to the newspaper. The two were not in a relationship.
Assistant Attorney General Bud Ellis said that Flick decided to kill Dobbie when he learned that she was going to leave Lewiston. Ellis said Flick was thinking “‘If I can’t have her, I will kill her,’ … that’s exactly what he did.”
Flick’s sentencing is set for Aug. 9 and he faces 25 years to life in prison. Maine has no death penalty.
Man convicted for killing woman in front of her children (from @AP) #Maine https://t.co/ayjrcRN73H
— lisamariepane (@lisamariepane) July 17, 2019
Long History of Violence
Flick has already been convicted of murder and has had a continuous pattern of attacking women over the past 40 years.
In 1979, Flick was sentenced to 30 years in prison the murder of his then-wife, Sandra Flick, in Westbrook. He had stabbed her at least 15 times in the head, neck, and heart, while her then-12-year-old daughter from a previous marriage witnessed the killing, reported the Sun Journal.
Flick served just over 20 years in prison for the crime; he was released on good behavior on Oct. 6, 2000.
Lewiston stabbing was ‘preventable,’ says woman who watched suspect murder her mother 39 years ago https://t.co/lM0zHSUR7f pic.twitter.com/2saRttKTBc
— NEWS CENTER Maine (@newscentermaine) July 17, 2018
He was later charged in 2008 and 2010 for two separate attacks on different women.
In 2008, he attacked his then-girlfriend and then tried to prevent her from testifying against him by intimidating her.
In 2010, shortly after he was released on probation for the 2008 attack, he was sentenced again for assaulting another woman in Portland. The woman had told police that Flick had struck her repeatedly with the handle end of a knife, and later tried to chase her with a screwdriver.
At Flick’s 2010 sentencing, Superior Court Justice Robert E. Crowley gave Flick a three-year suspended sentence with one year of probation for the 2010 assault.
Crowley had disregarded comments from the probation officer, and Flick’s prosecutor, who said he should serve an additional four to five years, because of his longstanding history of violence.
The prosecutor, Katherine Tierney, said “there’s a huge safety risk to women and society when it comes to Mr. Flick,” the Portland Press Herald reported.
But Crowley pointed out that Flick would be 72-73 at the time of his release in 2014, and said, “At some point Mr. Flick is going to age out of his capacity to engage in this conduct, and incarcerating him beyond the time that he ages out doesn’t seem to me to make good sense from a criminological or fiscal perspective,” the Press Herald reported.
Elsie Clement, who was the 12-year-old girl when she witnessed Flick kill her mother, told News Center Maine in 2018 that she was surprised upon hearing Flick had been charged with murder again.
“I don’t understand how somebody that is obviously such a threat to society was back on the streets,” Clement told the news outlet. “I don’t understand. I can’t for the life of me wrap my head around it. I can’t.”
She said that Dobbie’s death could have been prevented.
“I would like to just see [everyone involved] in a line and stand there and tell [Dobbie’s] boys, explain to them how this man was on the streets and how it’s okay,” she told News Center Maine in 2018. “How the law makes it alright for their mom to now be gone and for them to have to witness it.”
