Fuller acquitted in Belfast murder-for-hire case BY WALTER GRIFFIN OF THE NEWS STAFF WISCASSET Legendary Waldo County badman Joel Fuller has been found not guilty of a 19-year-old murder. A Lincoln County Superior Court jury of eight 'men and four women deliberated, for about four hours before reaching its verdict Friday evening. Fuller had been charged with the Dec. 16, 1983, murder of Mervin "Sonny" Grotton at his Belfast home. Fuller, 47, broke into a broad grin when the jury foreman The state contended that Fuller was the trigger man in a murder-for-hire scheme set in motion by Grotton's wife, Norma Small, 63. Testimony in the case indicated that Boyd Smith, 42, of Brooks, a friend of one of Small's daughters, introduced Small to Fuller. Smith testified that Small wanted him to find someone willing to kill her husband and that he sought out Fuller because he knew him to have a reputation "to do almost anything for money." In August 2002, a Sagadahoc| See Fuller, Page A2 read the verdict. He turned and hugged family members and gave his attorney, Jeffrey Silverstein, a vigorous handshake. Fuller's elation will probably be shortlived, however, because he was set to' 'be transported Fuller back to a federal prison in Pennsylvania, where he is currently serving a 50-year sentence and a life sentence for two drug-related murders that occurred in Waldo County in the mid-1980s. "We didn't steal it," Silverstein said in reaction to the verdict. "It's the result it should have been on the basis of the testimony and the evidence. I would have been shocked had the verdict been guilty. It just seemed like there were too many lapses in the evidence for the jury not to find reasonable doubt." 'During the five-day trial, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson presented evidence that tied Fuller to the Grotton killing. Fuller