PORTLAND, Maine — A Kittery man who assaulted his former girlfriend and then repeatedly violated a protective order by visiting her at a domestic violence shelter in the months before her death by suicide was sentenced to 31 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Nelson Jean Dion, 54, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal, according to a release from Acting U.S. Attorney Donald E. Clark.
Dion was arrested for felony aggravated assault on April 16, 2016, one day after Kittery police stopped his former girlfriend as she attempted to leave him.
Police stopped the woman for reckless driving, according to court documents, and noticed bruising on her face that she said Dion had inflicted at his Berwick home earlier that month, FBI Agent Thomas P. MacDonald wrote in an affidavit.
Dion was released April 19, 2016, on the condition that he not contact the woman, but between April 19, 2016 and June 30, 2016, he repeatedly violated the order, traveling to and from the New Hampshire domestic violence shelter where she was living in order to have contact with her.
Co-workers of the woman reported seeing the woman arrive at work during that time with a black eye, a missing front tooth and other bruises.
According to the affidavit, the woman drove Dion's truck from his Berwick home to the Piscataqua River bridge on June 30, 2016, before jumping from the bridge.
Phone records indicate that she sent a text message to Dion that morning saying, "You're right, I'm no good. Your truck is on the bridge."
She died the following day, according to the affidavit.
In August 2020, Dion entered a conditional plea of guilty to the charges. The plea allows him to appeal a legal issue to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston.
He remains on supervised in-home custody in the meantime, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
