The Stranger in the Woods

Finkel attends Knight’s hearing at the Kennebec County Courthouse on October 28, 2013, seven months after his initial arrest. Due to the unique circumstances and the six-year statute of limitations, Knight pleads guilty to 13 counts of burglary and theft. In lieu of prison, he enters the Co-Occurring Disorders and Veterans Court program with the district attorney claiming that Knight has alcoholism in addition to psychological conditions.

The sentence is seven months of jail, cut to one week for time served, a fine of $2,000 for victims, and one year of counseling, community service, daily case manager calls, weekly court visits, and random drug testing. He must live with his mother in Albion and stay in the state of Maine.

Knight, calling his sentence a “double winter,” is reticent to rejoin society and prefers the structure of jail. He admits he’s “extremely emotionally thin-skinned” and needs counseling for basic conversational cues (167). A chance to work on an organic farm falls through after neighbors learn about it. Finkel offers to help Knight with employment, but Knight rejects help and claims that he does not want to see Finkel again. He backpedals from this stance, telling Finkel that he would like to see his book collection and speak to him next spring “when the