Officer uses stun gun on family member as Skowhegan courtroom melee breaks out during murder sentencing [Video]

SKOWHEGAN — A sentencing hearing for a 20-year-old man who pleaded guilty to murder turned to a courtroom melee Friday as a family member of the victim leaped across a barrier to attack the convicted killer.

Superior Court Justice Robert Mullen had just handed down a sentence of 45 years to Jason Servil in connection with the murder of Alice Abbott in July 2022, when Jeremy Pratt, Servil’s attorney, asked to have a conversation with the judge.

As Pratt, another defense attorney and the state prosecutor approached the bench, Clifford Warren, the brother of the victim, surged from his seat in the gallery over the railing — known as the bar — and across about 20 feet to attack Servil. Warren was stopped by a county corrections officer, who deployed a stun gun, and was later escorted away in handcuffs.

Some of Abbott’s family members who attended Friday’s sentencing shouted and tried to reach Servil, but they …