Teenager to plead guilty in mother’s slaying in Litchfield, Maine

A teenager who allegedly killed his mother with two of his friends in Litchfield, Maine, last year has agreed to plead guilty and faces a prison term of 25 to 35 years, prosecutors say.

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office Thursday confirmed the deal had been reached in the case against Lukas Mironovas, who was 15 when he allegedly stabbed his mother, Kimberly Mironovas, 47, in the neck in Litchfield in April 2018.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the younger Mironovas, now 16, will plead guilty; he’s charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Authorities have said Lukas Mironovas and an Ashland, Mass., teenager, William S. Smith, also 15 at the time of the attack, snuck into the elder Kimberly Mironovas’s bedroom and choked her before Lukas stabbed his mother in the neck.

Smith is also charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. His case remains pending.

A third youth, Thomas Jay Severance, just 13 at the time of the murder, in April 2019 admitted to conspiring with his friends to kill Kimberly Mironovas and was committed to the Long Creek Youth Development Center until age 21, the longest sentence possible for a juvenile, officials have said. Severance was accused of helping to plan the brutal slaying.

Kimberly Mironovas had moved to Maine in 2017, selling her condo in Ashland and moving more than 180 miles to Litchfield, where she enrolled in a nearby cosmetology school.

The three boys had initially planned to spike her drink with a fatal dose of crushed prescription pills, prosecutors said, but abandoned the plan after they tried diluting the powder in wine and found that residue remained visible in the glass.

The teenagers instead decided to strangle and stab her, prosecutors said. Authorities allege Lukas Mironovas carried a knife and donned a mask and gloves during the attack. Smith wore gloves, they said.

Smith and Severance were students in the Ashland public schools system at the time they were charged, while Lukas Mironovas was an Ashland student up until the 2009-2010 school year, the district said.