AP News, October 16th, 2007
A former cook who pleaded guilty to killing four people in western Maine's ski country told investigators he had been obsessed with thoughts of killing someone for several years, a prosecutor said.
Christian Nielsen, who faces up to life in prison at his sentencing Thursday, also said one reason he killed four people from the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast over the 2006 Labor Day weekend was because he wanted to take over as its proprietor, according to a sentencing memorandum signed by Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson that was filed Monday in Oxford County Superior Court.
Nielsen, 32, said he shot James Whitehurst, 50, of Batesville Ark., partially dismembered the body and buried the remains in the woods. Whitehurst was a handyman who had been staying at the lodge in Newry, a resort town in southwestern Maine.
Prosecutors say over the next three days Nielsen killed the lodge's owner, Julie Bullard, 65; her daughter, Selby Bullard, 30; and her daughter's friend, Cindy Beatson, 43, to cover up the killing of Whitehurst. He used a chain saw, hacksaw and pick ax to dismember the bodies, prosecutors said.
The prosecutor's memorandum recommends that Nielsen, who turned down his lawyers' recommendation that he invoke an insanity defense, be sentenced to four life prison terms, three to be served consecutively.
Benson said Nielsen has expressed no regret for the killings and would pose a danger to society if released.
Nielsen's lawyer, Ron Hoffman, was in court Tuesday and could not be reached immediately for comment.
Benson's memorandum indicated Nielsen had no specific motive for killing Whitehurst, but that murder had been on his mind well before the weekend rampage.
"When Detective (Jennifer) King asked the defendant how long he had been considering killing people, he told her that he had seen it coming for some time. It was all he had really thought about since he was 26 years old," the document said. Nielsen was 31 at the time of the killings.
