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The Auburn Maine man was convicted this month of the 1993 murder and sexual assault of a 20-year-old woman at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The fate of Steven Downs, a 47-year-old nurse from Auburn, Maine, is now in hands of a 12-person jury in Alaska.

The bullet that killed Sophie Sergie in 1993 could have been fired by a pistol owned by Steven Downs — and possibly a million other guns — according to testimony heard Tuesday. Two firearms experts testified via videoconference in the rape and murder trial against Downs, 46, who had been a student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks at the time of the brutal crime. On Tuesday, Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Thomas Temple heard testimony from witnesses presented by prosecutors and the defense who reached the same conclusion, that the .22-caliber bullet removed from 20-year-old Serg...

Gillis said she tested three guns taken from Downs’ Auburn home during a February 2019 police search. She ruled out a rifle as being the possible murder weapon. She said she couldn’t eliminate a Ruger and an H & R pistol owned by Downs as the gun that fired the lethal bullet, but said the Ruger was less likely. Asked by Assistant Attorney General Chris Darnall whether the H & R pistol could have fired the bullet, Gillis said, “Yes, the individual characteristics and class characteristics that I see all correspond.” But, she added, “it’s not enough for an identification” due to t...

Read Article Steven Downs, right, leaves the courtroom with his attorney, James Howaniec, after bail was denied in Androscoggin County Superior Court in Auburn in March. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal file photo The former girlfriend of an Auburn man charged in the rape and murder of an Alaska native woman in 1993 said Thursday that Steven H. Downs never owned a gun in the four years they dated while students at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. Attorneys for Downs, 46, called Katherine deSchweinitz Lee on Thursday to testify in Fairbanks Superior Court via videoconference as a witness i...