Convicted Maine killer dies following an encounter with New Jersey prison officials

By Joseph

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Convicted Maine killer dies following an encounter with New Jersey prison officials

The convicted murderer of a Readfield man died in New Jersey.

David Silva, 46, died Thursday in the hospital after a “encounter with correctional police officers” at Northern State Prison in Newark, according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity.

According to the New Jersey attorney general’s office, the officers have yet to be identified.

Silva was found guilty of killing 56-year-old Robert Orr, whose body was discovered in the burned-out Readfield home he lived with his wife, Janet.

Silva and his then-girlfriend, Lindsay Spence, were renting a room from the Orrs at the time. Spence later told detectives that she awoke the night of the murders to find Robert Orr decapitated and slouched in a chair, before Silva set fire to the house.

Spence went to Massachusetts in her car, while Silva took Orr’s truck. They stole jewels, firearms, and money, which Silva used to purchase heroin.

Silva was caught few days later at his parents’ house in Carver, Massachusetts.

Silva entered an Alford plea to murder in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta in January 2013, and was sentenced to 43 years in prison. In an Alford plea, the defendant does not acknowledge guilt but agrees that prosecutors have sufficient evidence to convict.

Silva was transported to the Garden State’s prison system on September 21, 2015, according to the New Jersey Department of Correction.

It was unclear why Silva was imprisoned in New Jersey. According to a Maine Department of Corrections representative who spoke with the Bangor Daily News via email, information is secret under state law.

Silva had multiple prior offenses before being convicted for murder, robbery, assault, arson, and other counts in connection with Orr’s death, including a 1997 arson in Carver, Massachusetts.

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