Man Deemed Too Old to be Dangerous Murders Again

It took a jury only 40 minutes to return a guilty verdict on Wednesday July 17th against Albert Flick, now 77 of Lewiston, Maine.  He was charged with the 2018 stabbing death of Kimberly Dobbie, 48, and mother of twin boys, age 11.

Flick's story goes back to 1981 when he was sentenced to 25 years for an eerily similar slaying of his then wife, Sandra Flick.   Sandra had served Albert with divorce papers in January of 1979 and had him physically removed from the apartment by local police.  The following month, when Sandra asked Albert to remove several items from the apartment, he stabbed her 14 times in front of her daughter, Elise Kimball who was just 12 years old at the time.

A neighbor heard the commotion and called police before meeting Flick as he descended the stairs, hands and pants red with blood.  According to court records, Flick began by asking for help for Sandra saying that he didn't mean to do it.

After serving his time, he was released in 2004 only to be sent back to jail in 2010 for an assault charge against another woman.  In that case, a woman stated that Flick had grabbed a knife, put her in a headlock and hit her repeatedly with the butt-end of the knife.  She managed to knock the weapon from his hands and escape while, according to court records, she heard Flick say, "If that doesn't work, I know what will."

In that case, Judge Crowley had the ability to not only convict Flick on violation of parole, but also the assault.  The probation officer, Tony Thornton stated in court, “He’s an extremely violent individual when it comes to relationships.  He doesn’t appear to have slowed down at this point, and I don’t see him slowing down in the near future.”

Crowley, in his ruling however, determined that “At some point Mr. Flick is going to age out of his capacity to engage in this conduct, and incarcerating him beyond the time that he ages out doesn’t seem to me to make good sense from a criminological or fiscal perspective.” Crowley revoked Flick's probation and handed down a three-year suspended sentence with one year of probation upon his release.

Fast forward to July 2018 and Flick was once again in trouble with the law.  This time, for a nearly identical repeat of his first offense.

Kimberly Dobbie was a homeless woman that Flick had become infatuated with to the point that he dined at the homeless shelter where she was staying with her two boys.  He became aware that she was planning to skip town and, according to Assistant Attorney General Bud Ellis thought to himself: “If I can’t have her, I will kill her.”  He went to Walmart and purchased two knives.

In broad daylight, on July 15th, and in view of a closed caption camera system, Flick was seen approaching Dobbie in front of a laundromat before stabbing her 11 times in front of her boys.  One of the wounds cut the left ventricle of her heart; another fractured a rib and pierced her right lung, Maine’s deputy chief medical examiner had testified. Dobbie died from blood loss.

Bystanders tackled Flick to the ground and tried to help Dobbie as emergency services were called.  Flick was taken to the hospital for chest pains and upon discharge, booked for murder.  In a matter of 40 minutes, the jury determined that he was guilty.

He is due back in court August and faces the possibility of life behind bars.