SKOWHEGAN, Maine (WABI) - The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has vacated the sentence for a Massachusetts man accused of killing a woman in Skowhegan in 2022.

22-year-old Jason Servil pleaded guilty to the murder of 20-year-old Alice Abbott and was sentenced to 45 years in prison in April 2024.

In a ruling published Thursday, the high court says the judge at the sentencing read the victim’s obituary into the record, saying he found it very moving.

The Supreme Court says quote, “We conclude that the court abused its discretion by incorporating, and potentially giving weight to, information obtained from its own independent research, and we cannot say that this error was harmless.”

Servil will be resentenced by a different judge at a later date.

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