Glen Rodney Pleads Not Guilty in Fatal Tukey's Bridge Stabbing of 21-Year-Old Julian Nadeau

The short version: Glen Rodney, the 58-year-old Portland man charged with murder in the Aug. 5 stabbing death of 21-year-old Julian “Juju” Nadeau near Tukey’s Bridge, pleaded not guilty Wednesday, according to the Portland Press Herald. His defense attorney asked a judge to grant him bail. Prosecutors pushed back, arguing Rodney should stay in the Cumberland County Jail and describing the attack as a “stranger-on-stranger assault.” No bail ruling was reported.

Two months after a summer night on a Portland walking path turned into a homicide investigation, the case is now officially moving toward trial — with the two sides already disagreeing on the most basic question of what happened in those minutes by the bridge.

A not-guilty plea, and a fight over bail

Rodney entered the plea Wednesday in the Cumberland County case, setting up what will be a closely watched murder prosecution in Maine’s largest city. The Bangor Daily News, citing the Press Herald’s reporting from the hearing, says defense attorney James Howaniec asked the court to release Rodney on bail while the case proceeds.

Prosecutors opposed the request. Their argument, in essence: this was not a dispute between people who knew each other. Calling it a stranger-on-stranger assault, the state told the judge that Rodney should remain behind bars at the Cumberland County Jail, where he has been held since his arrest in August.

The article does not report a ruling on bail, and no future hearing or trial dates were mentioned. For now, Rodney remains in custody, presumed innocent, with a single murder charge hanging over him.

What police say happened on Aug. 5

The killing happened on a path near Tukey’s Bridge, the span that carries Interstate 295 over the entrance to Back Cove in Portland. It is a well-traveled corridor — commuters overhead, joggers and walkers on the trail below, the graffiti-covered concrete under the bridge a known hangout spot.

According to police, Nadeau was walking along the path with friends that Wednesday night when Rodney approached them on a bicycle. An argument broke out. During the confrontation, Rodney allegedly stabbed Nadeau in the chest, according to a police affidavit cited by Portland ABC affiliate WMTW.

Court documents added a chilling detail: before the stabbing, Rodney allegedly threatened to kill someone, WMTW reported. The documents do not say precisely whom the threat was directed at, or how much time passed between the threat and the attack.

Just before 9:47 p.m., Portland police responded to the southbound side of I-295 near Exit 8 and the walking path adjacent to the bridge for a report of an injured person. Officers found Nadeau lying in the breakdown lane of the highway. She was taken to Maine Medical Center but did not survive.

Rodney left the scene on the bicycle, police said. Minutes later, officers found him on Presumpscot Street in Portland’s East Deering neighborhood and took him into custody without incident. He has been at the Cumberland County Jail ever since.

Who Julian Nadeau was

Julian Nadeau was 21, from Portland, and known to friends as “Juju.” Those friends described her to the Press Herald as an energetic and goofy person — the kind of presence that filled a room, or in this case, a trail under a bridge on a summer night.

On Aug. 5, she had headed to the colorful graffiti wall beneath Tukey’s Bridge to hang out with friends and open Pokémon cards. It was an ordinary plan for a Wednesday evening. She was also a regular at furry conventions in the area, part of a community that knew her well.

Her partner, 22-year-old Kasper DeWitt, spoke to the Press Herald about what the loss has meant. “I just want to spread her love and carry that part of her for the rest of my life,” DeWitt said. “I need to channel her energy forever.”

In the weeks since the killing, a memorial has grown beneath Tukey’s Bridge along the Back Cove Trail — flowers, notes, and mementos left where friends say she spent some of her happiest hours.

Two competing stories

What happened in the minutes before the stabbing is already disputed. Rodney has claimed that he was attacked, and Howaniec suggested at Wednesday’s hearing that Rodney did not initiate the conflict. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have framed the killing as an unprovoked assault on a stranger.

That framing will matter. Self-defense claims live or die on who started what, and the state’s “stranger-on-stranger” characterization is a signal of how it intends to try the case: not as a fight that escalated, but as an attack on someone Rodney had no prior connection to.

Public records show Rodney has a criminal history in Maine. WGME reported that he was found guilty of assault in 2009 and paid a $750 fine, and that a 2015 domestic violent assault charge was dismissed after he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct and paid a $600 fine.

What comes next

The not-guilty plea starts the clock on the formal pretrial process: discovery, motions, and eventually a trial date. None of those dates have been made public yet. The bail question — whether Rodney waits for trial at home or in a cell — remains unresolved in the public record.

For Portland, the case has become one of those local tragedies that lingers: a young woman killed on a path people walk every day, a memorial growing under a bridge, and a court case that will now decide what justice looks like for Juju Nadeau.

Previously’s Maine crime desk will keep following this case as it moves toward trial. Read more local and national news, including another Maine case moving through the courts this month.