Glen Rodney Pleads Not Guilty in Fatal Tukey’s Bridge Stabbing of Julian “Juju” Nadeau

The short version: Glen Rodney, 58, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a murder charge in the fatal stabbing of 21-year-old Julian “Juju” Nadeau on a walking path near Tukey’s Bridge in Portland on August 5. Prosecutors are pushing to keep Rodney held at the Cumberland County Jail, while his defense attorney, James Howaniec, suggested Rodney did not initiate the conflict and asked a judge to grant him bail.

What happened at Tukey’s Bridge

Nadeau, of Portland, was walking with friends on the path near Tukey’s Bridge — the span that carries I-295 over the entrance to Back Cove — on the night of August 5. According to the Bangor Daily News, Rodney approached the group on a bicycle. An argument broke out, and during it Rodney allegedly stabbed Nadeau in the chest, per WMTW citing a police affidavit. Before the stabbing, Rodney allegedly threatened to kill someone.

Police found Nadeau in the breakdown lane along the southbound side of the highway at about 9:47 p.m. She was taken to Maine Medical Center but did not survive. That night, Nadeau had been heading to a colorful graffiti wall under the bridge to hang out with friends and open Pokémon cards — an ordinary summer evening with friends that ended in a killing.

Rodney fled on the bicycle, later claimed he was attacked, and was arrested without incident minutes later on Presumpscot Street in Portland’s East Deering neighborhood.

A popular path, a shaken city

Tukey’s Bridge is not some remote stretch of highway. The walking path there is one of Portland’s most-used recreational routes, drawing runners, cyclists, and groups of friends on warm evenings. That an argument on that path could end with a 21-year-old stabbed in the chest is the detail that rattled Portland in August — and it is the detail that will hang over the case as it moves toward trial.

The Bangor Daily News notes that before the stabbing, Rodney allegedly threatened to kill someone — a claim that, if proven, undercuts any suggestion that what happened was spontaneous or mutual. Prosecutors have characterized the attack as a “stranger-on-stranger assault,” according to the Portland Press Herald, a framing that draws a hard line: this was not a dispute between people who knew each other, but a killing that erupted between strangers on a public path.

The plea hearing

On October 7, Rodney stood before a judge and entered a not-guilty plea to the murder charge in Nadeau’s death. His defense attorney, James Howaniec, suggested Rodney did not initiate the conflict and asked that Rodney be granted bail. Prosecutors pushed for him to remain at the Cumberland County Jail, where he is currently held. No upcoming court dates were mentioned in the Bangor Daily News report.

Remembering Juju

Nadeau’s partner, 22-year-old Kasper DeWitt, told the Portland Press Herald he wants to carry her memory forward. “I just want to spread her love and carry that part of her for the rest of my life. I need to channel her energy forever,” DeWitt said.

Friends remembered Nadeau as “an energetic and goofy person,” according to the Press Herald. She frequented local furry conventions, which DeWitt said was a big part of her life. She was 21 years old — a kid, really, still in the years where life is mostly ahead of you, and now defined in the public record by the worst night of her life.

What the plea hearing tells us about the fight ahead

Not-guilty pleas are procedural — they preserve every option, including a trial — but the arguments around the edges of Wednesday’s hearing already sketch the battle lines. Howaniec’s position, that Rodney did not initiate the conflict, is the classic opening of a self-defense or mutual-altercation claim. The prosecution’s push to keep Rodney jailed, paired with the “stranger-on-stranger assault” framing, signals the opposite theory: an unprovoked attack on a young woman who had been doing nothing more dangerous than hanging out with friends by a graffiti wall.

The question of bail will matter in the weeks ahead. Howaniec wants his client free while the case winds through the courts; prosecutors want him behind bars. Judges weigh flight risk, danger to the community, and the seriousness of the charge — and a murder charge in a stranger-on-stranger killing is the kind of fact pattern that typically keeps a defendant in custody.

What comes next

With a not-guilty plea entered, the case will move toward trial — where the central dispute is already taking shape. The defense’s early position is that Rodney did not start the confrontation, while prosecutors are describing it as a stranger-on-stranger assault in which Rodney threatened to kill someone before allegedly stabbing Nadeau in the chest.

The Tukey’s Bridge path is one of Portland’s most-traveled walking routes, and the August killing rattled the city. How the case unfolds — and whether bail is granted in the meantime — will be closely watched by a community that is still mourning a young woman whose night out with friends never brought her home.