It wasn’t his first stint in prison. He’d had an explosive personality since he was a child. As the 34-year-old man left the prison after serving time for assaulting his ex-wife, his parents waited for him. They took him to breakfast, bought him new clothes, rented him a motel room at the beach for a few days to relax and adjust, and gave him some money. Later, he said his parents had stuck by him through everything, they’d been, “the epitome of unconditional love.”
Two days after his release from prison, he asked his parents to pick him up at the motel, which they did. They rented a car for him. His parents drove to their dear friends’ home, where they were all staying for a few days. Their son did too, but used a different route, stopping along the way to purchase crack. Drugs and alcohol helped quiet the demons inside his head—untreated mental health issues.
An assessment done after a domestic violence arrest said he was likely to re-offend and that he posed a concern for the community’s safety.
That first evening with his parents and their friends at their home, they all had a fried chicken dinner together. He even said the prayer.
The next morning, after breakfast, the guys went to his father’s friend’s construction worksite. They thought perhaps the young man might want to try construction work.
When the men returned to the home, the parolee tried to contact his ex-wife to arrange a visit with his children. His ex-father-in-law answered the call and warned him to stay away. At this juncture he claimed he felt a psychotic break.
Next, he got a handgun out of his mother’s purse that he knew she kept, sat down on the sofa next to his mother and her friend and shot them both in the head. As the friend’s husband came inside, he shot him, and then shot his father outside. His last act was to shoot the family dog. He stole guns from the homeowner’s closet and filing cabinet where he knew he kept them and left in his rental car.
Feeling paranoid and fearing everyone was law enforcement looking for him, he shot randomly on the freeway along his path to nowhere. He shot two members of one family. They suffered serious injuries requiring life-saving surgeries.
The Commissioner of the State’s Department of Public Safety said,
“You want to naturally say, “That can’t be happening here in [state].” But the reality is these senseless acts can and do happen everywhere.”
It took a year for the victims of the freeway shooting to fully recover. The father of the victims said in an interview, he couldn’t understand why a violent felon being released from prison could stay in a home where he could access guns.
*In the state where this crime occurred, there isn’t a law prohibiting a felon who cannot possess a firearm from being released to stay in a home where there are firearms present.
After shooting at vehicles, he stopped along the roadside and waited to be arrested. Then he confessed to all his crimes. A judge sentenced him to:
Four life sentences for murdering his parents and their friends
Nine 30-year sentences for attempting to murder and aggravated assault of the people on the freeway
15 years for theft of guns, money, and other possession
Five years for animal cruelty for killing the family dog
At the sentencing, a victim’s relative said in her victim impact statement,
“He killed the only four people in this world who actually loved and cared for him.”
His brother wondered if he could have done anything to prevent his parents’ death. He also wondered if the prison system had truly rehabilitated his brother rather than simply release him if his parents would still be alive. Their murder shook his faith so much so that when a priest sat next to him on the plane heading to his parents’ funerals, he told the priest,
“I think you and I are supposed to have a conversation.”
Source: State Probable Cause Affidavit, Associated Press, Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald, News Center Maine NBC, Fox 23 On Your Side, CNN
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