Steven Downs

Steven Harris Downs is flanked by state troopers as he enters a Fairbanks courtroom in 2019. Robin Wood for the News-Miner

The judge who presided over the sexual assault and murder trial of a Maine man has rejected an appeal for a new trial or a judgment of acquittal, citing a lack of evidence.

A jury convicted Steven H. Downs, 47, on Feb. 10 on both counts involving the brutal death of Sophie Sergie, 20, of Pitkas Point. Her body was found in a women’s bathroom of a dormitory at the University of Alaska Fairbanks on April 26, 1993.

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