Wells man gets 27 years for NYC machete attack

WELLS, Maine — Trevor Bickford, the local man who attempted to kill three police officers with a machete and wage jihad in Times Square on New Year’s Eve in 2022, was sentenced to 27 years in prison on Thursday, May 9.

Prosecutors had asked for a 50-year sentence, while the defense asked for 10 years. Under law, he faced a maximum sentence of up to 120 years in prison for the charges.

Earlier this year, Bickford pleaded guilty to three attempted murder charges and three charges of assaulting U.S. employees or officers.

In the weeks leading up to the sentencing, attorneys from the Federal Defenders of New York sought a lesser sentence of 10 years in prison and 15 years of supervised release. They said Bickford was “ashamed and appalled” by what he did and described the mental health struggles he experienced in the years leading up to the attack.

In further efforts to provide the judge with factors to consider, the attorneys also filed documents detailing Bickford’s life after his arrest and how he was able to get the professional help his loved ones had sought before the attack.

In one example, attorneys wrote that Bickford had saved the life of inmate whom he had found lying in a pool of blood. Using skills he learned in a life-saving course, Bickford applied pressure on the inmate’s wound, yelled for help, and called on others to find a guard.

According to the attorneys,

Bickford felt “he was still alive” when he saw the wounded inmate being escorted from the jail’s Suicide Unit the next day.

“For the first time since he committed an unprovoked attack on three police officers ... he felt that maybe his life still might have purpose,” wrote his defense attorney, Marisa Cabrera.

The defense attorneys’ court filings also chronicled what they described as a childhood spent in a “violent and volatile home,” with a father, now deceased, who was an alcoholic and a cocaine addict who was “strict and emotionally abusive.” Bickford’s father died from an overdose, and Bickford blamed himself for his death, according to the attorneys.

Prosecutors argued for 50 years stating that Bickford’s actions were premeditated.

“In the weeks leading up to his attack, the defendant explored traveling overseas to support the Taliban in Afghanistan or elsewhere,” stated prosecutors in a court filing regarding sentencing. “He planned to ally himself with the Taliban to fight against governments that, in the defendant’s view, oppress Muslims, and to wage jihad against officials of governments that he believes are anti-Muslim, including the U.S. Government. Ultimately, the defendant decided that he would not travel overseas, and instead turned his attention to an attack here, in the United States. This decision resulted in the defendant’s ferocious attack on December 31, 2022.”

Prosecutors said the assault left victims and witnesses traumatized.

According to court documents, one of the officers attacked was working his first day after graduating from the NYPD academy. He suffered a skull fracture and laceration to the back of his head, received more than a dozen stitches and was out of work for more than three months.

Another officer continues to suffer pain from his injuries and is afraid to return to Manhattan, while a third is dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and has been unable to return to work.