Joseph Eaton was sentenced to life in prison on Monday for the murder of his parents and two family friends, after he pleaded guilty to those and other crimes related to his 2023 shooting rampage in Bowdoin and Yarmouth, and asked that he receive the maximum sentence.
Earlier in the afternoon, Eaton had pleaded guilty to four counts of murder, along with theft and cruelty to animals, in the shooting deaths last year 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.
At Monday’s hearing in a Bath courthouse, Eaton said he has thought about the incident since he committed the crimes.
“A life sentence is what I deserve. I honestly think I deserve worse. All I’d like to say is, I’m sorry,” Eaton said.
Eaton received four life sentences, one each for the murders. He also received sentences of 15 years for the theft of guns, money and other possessions from the Bowdoin home; five years for animal cruelty for the killing of a family dog; and nine 30-year sentences for the attempted murder and aggravated assault of the victims he shot at and injured in Yarmouth.
Eaton entered his pleas just after 1:30 p.m. at Sagadahoc County Superior Court in Bath, and was sentenced an hour and a half later.
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.
Several people, whether they knew the people Eaton killed or took fire from him on the highway, testified at Monday’s hearing. Friends and family of the Egers and Eaton’s parents cried, demanding the maximum sentence for him.
Scott Duraps, a relative of Patti Eger, addressed Eaton as he spoke about the lasting effects of the death of his loved one. He said he’s known Joseph Eaton since the murderer was five or six years old.
“I wonder how they would respond to you, if they were still here?” Duraps said, referencing the deceased Egers and Eatons. “I actually know. They’d greet you with open arms, like always, show you love and compassion. Well guess what? They’re dead. All four of them. Gone.”
As tearful people gave their testimonies, Eaton looked straight ahead, but occasionally glanced back at them. He wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his state-issued orange shirt.
Several people said they are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder since the incident, including Evangeline Kensell, whom Eaton shot at on the interstate. She was not physically harmed, but she helped assist the father and his children — Sean, Paige and Justin Halsey — who suffered injuries from Eaton’s gunshots.
“He’s taken away so much from me,” Kensell said.
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.