A Maine man has been convicted of raping and murdering a woman who he had known in high school.
Jalique Keene, 22, was charged with gross sexual assault and murder after his former high school friend Mikaela Conley, 19, was found dead on June 2, 2018, in Bar Harbor.
About 50 members of the public were present and several hugged each other after the guilty verdict was announced. Several cried.
Conley’s relatives didn’t comment on the verdict while Keene “stood stone-faced” as it was read, according to the News.
John Alsop, a state prosecutor who worked on the case, said the evidence was “very compelling.” He noted that the jury’s verdict indicated they didn’t believe Keene when he claimed that he didn’t recall carrying Conley’s body behind a school building. The act was seen in surveillance footage from the school.
“I found that to be unworthy of belief and I believe the jury did too,” the prosecutor said.
The security footage was captured early June 1, about an hour after Snapchat videos from Conley’s phone showed Keene at the playground at the school.
“A different camera showed an unidentifiable human figure walking down the ramp at 3:45 a.m. Approximately six minutes later, a different camera picked up a male who appeared to be Keene, identified by his clothes and tattoo, entering the playground area once again through an opening in the fence around the perimeter of the playground.”
Additional footage showed Keene carrying Conley’s body before washing his shoes, legs, and arms with a nearby water spigot.
He said that he and his friend from high school had consensual sex but that she grew upset afterward. After trying to calm her down, he left with the intention to meet up with her later, he said.
Keene went to Conley’s house on June 2 and said he‘d left his cellphone there and Conley’s mother said she’d get it from her daughter’s room. That’s when she found out her daughter was missing. Keene told her he'd last seen Conley at around 3:30 a.m. at the playground.
“The defendant even participated in the search,” Assistant Attorney General Meg Elam told the jury. “He pretended to look for Mikaela Conley when he already knew where her dead body lay.”