PARIS — Plea negotiations in a Rumford double murder case came to an abrupt end for one of two defendants Thursday as he entered a guilty plea.

Eric Hamel, 20, of 21 Mexico Ave. in Mexico was scheduled to appear in Oxford County Superior Court on a hearing on motions to suppress evidence. The hearing was delayed from Sept. 17, with defense lawyer George Hess saying in a motion to delay the hearing that he and prosecutors were engaged in plea negotiations and needed additional time for discussions.

About an hour after the hearing’s scheduled time, Hamel changed the not guilty plea he entered at his arraignment to guilty.

Hamel is charged with two counts of murder in the shooting deaths of Roger Day, 48, and Victor Sheldon, 22, in Day’s Pine Street home in Rumford on Aug. 3, 2009.

Also charged in the case is Richard A. Moulton Jr., 21, of Franklin Street in Rumford. Moulton was inside the house at the time of the murders and later admitted to helping plan them, according to court documents.

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson said the state will recommend that Hamel serve 50 years in prison, though Hess said he will argue for less time at sentencing. Part of the plea agreement will require Hamel to testify against Moulton or any other defendants in the case. A sentencing date has not been set because Moulton’s case has not been resolved and investigation into the shootings is ongoing.

Hess said he has been meeting with prosecutors about the sentence they would recommend if Hamel entered a plea.

“It’s a discussion that’s been going on for several months, and it reached a point where both sides were comfortable with the recommendation,” Hess said.

According to police affidavits, Moulton wanted Sheldon killed because Moulton was afraid his girlfriend — Sheldon’s estranged wife, Gayla Sheldon — would lose the two children she had with Sheldon if he went to jail.

Sheldon was charged with domestic assault against Gayla and was scheduled to appear in court on the day of his murder, but the charge was dismissed the day before.

During interviews with police on Aug. 6 and 7 last year, Hamel initially denied involvement in the murders but later confessed that Moulton had asked him to kill Sheldon and Day, too, if he was at the residence. Hamel said he agreed to kill the men, whom he had not met before, for $2,000.

Hamel said Moulton went to Day’s house to visit the men, and Hamel went there later and shot Day and Sheldon with a .38-caliber Smith and Wesson revolver stolen from a neighbor. Hamel said Moulton went into the bathroom before the shootings. He said he also planned to shoot Moulton, but not fatally, to make it appear he wasn’t involved, but Moulton told him to run instead.

Hamel said he buried the gun off Oak Street, and later led Maine State Police detectives to the site. The detectives found the gun, shell casings and fragments from gloves Hamel said he was wearing at the time of the shooting.

Benson said the state would have presented testimony at trial from state police detectives Lucas Hare and John Hainey, who investigated several leads before Moulton suggested that Hamel was involved in the killings.

Benson said Christopher Overdorf would have testified that he heard shots, then saw a man leave the house and run into a car, losing his sunglasses. Benson said Overdorf later identified Hamel from a photo lineup. Hamel’s DNA was found on the sunglasses and the glove fragments.

Hamel’s neighbor would have testified that his gun was stolen before the shootings, Benson said. A state medical examiner would have testified that Day and Sheldon died of gunshot wounds to the head. Benson said an analysis of bullet fragments found in the bodies were not conclusively matched to the recovered gun, but that the shell casings found near the gun were matched to it.

A trial date had been set for Hamel, with jury selection to begin on Nov. 5.

Thursday’s hearing was set to address five motions filed by Hess, who was seeking to ban Hamel’s statements, a DNA sample he gave to police, the results of searches of his residence, computer and MySpace account and the photo lineup in which Overdorf identified Hamel.

Hess argued in the motions to suppress that Hamel did not voluntarily waive his Miranda rights, that there was no probable cause for the searches and that the identification was “impermissibly suggestive” and “unreliable.”

The motions were filed in March and followed a month later by Benson’s reply. In his memo, Benson said there was no evidence of coercion in Hamel’s statements and that he gave a “clear, unambiguous waiver” of his Miranda rights. He said the search of the computer and MySpace account did not result in any significant evidence against Hamel.

During a standard series of questions from Justice Robert Clifford on Thursday, Hamel said he understood that he had the right to a jury trial and that the state would have to prove that he intentionally or knowingly murdered Day and Sheldon. Hamel said the plea was voluntary and not coerced, that he was satisfied with Hess’ representation and that the three medications he is taking did not interfere with his reasoning.

Day’s parents and Hamel’s grandmother were present in the courtroom during the plea but declined to comment.

mlangeveld@sunjournal.com

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