This story will be updated.
Joseph Eaton pleaded guilty to four counts of murder, along with theft and cruelty to animals, on Monday in the shooting deaths last year that killed his parents and two family friends at a home in Bowdoin. He also pleaded guilty to additional charges of attempted murder for subsequent gunfire that injured three other people in a vehicle driving along Interstate 295 in Yarmouth.
For the murders, Eaton could face a maximum sentence of life in prison. For each attempted murder charge, he’s facing up to 30 years in prison, plus a maximum of 10 additional years for theft and five for animal cruelty.
Eaton entered his pleas just after 1:30 p.m. at Sagadahoc County Superior Court in Bath.
Police have previously said that Eaton confessed to the shootings, which came shortly after he was released from prison. He had made an insanity defense in connection with the shootings, but he dropped it late last year.
The grisly attacks claimed the lives of his parents, Cynthia Eaton, 62, and and David Eaton, 66, and their friends who were hosting them at their home in rural Bowdoin, Robert Eger, 72, and Patti Eger, 62, as well as a family dog.
Soon after their bodies were discovered, three people in a vehicle heading south on I-295 in Yarmouth — a father and his two grown children — were injured by gunshots. Police then found and arrested Eaton along the side of the highway.
Authorities have not previously suggested any motives Eaton may have had for the shootings. An unsigned note left at the scene of the killings had mentioned “someone being freed of pain and that the writer of the note wanted a new life,” according to a police affidavit. In interviews with the Portland Press Herald, Eaton also claimed he didn’t understand why he did it.
At the time, the shootings amounted to one of the deadliest days of gun violence in modern Maine history, sparking a push for new gun control policies. But the death toll was soon surpassed by the mass shooting by Army reservist Robert Card II last fall in Lewiston, which left 18 people dead at a bar and a bowling alley and also has driven calls for reform.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jules Walkup is a Report for America corps member. Additional support for this reporting is provided by BDN readers.
