A convicted child killer serving life in prison has three more months tacked on to his sentence after pleaded no contest to a drug charge Tuesday.
54-year-old Dennis Dechaine was set to go on trial in Rockland.
Instead he entered a plea on one count of possession of morphine. A second charge of trafficking in prison contraband was dropped.
Dechaine is behind bars for kidnapping and killing 12-year-old Sarah Cherry in Bowdoin in 1988.
Two years ago he was accused of having morphine in prison, along with an anti-anxiety drug. He was near death and hospitalized for weeks.
Dechaine maintains his innocence in the murder case. He's fighting for a new trial based on DNA evidence.
He was in court last week for a re-trial hearing. The judge is allowing more time for the defense to re-test items from the crime scene before ruling whether Dechaine should go before a jury again.