DOVER-FOXCROFT — Robert Burton, who police say took the life of his ex-girlfriend in Parkman in early June and turned himself in Tuesday after eluding a manhunt for more than two months, appeared in Piscataquis County Superior Court on Wednesday.
He went before Judge Kevin Stitham, who oversaw the proceeding via videoconference from the Lincoln courthouse. Stitham decided Burton would be held without bail at the request of prosecutor Assistant Attorney General John Alsop.
“He will be held without bail, awaiting the [bail] hearing,” Stitham said, after scheduling a hearing for Monday.
Stitham also appointed Ellsworth attorney Jeffrey Toothaker as Burton’s attorney, pending paperwork that Burton needs to file requesting an attorney, the judge said.
Attorney for the day Chris Smith told the judge Burton qualified for a court-appointed lawyer.
Three officers, two from the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office and one Maine State Police trooper, stood behind Burton in court.
Burton, 38, also known as Robert G. Elliot, is facing a murder charge in connection with the homicide of Stephanie Ginn Gebo, a single mother of two, whose body was discovered in her Parkman home on June 5.
Vance Ginn, Stephanie Ginn Gebo’s father, and his wife, Angel, were in attendance at court.
The judge did not ask Burton to enter a plea because he has not yet been indicted by a grand jury.
Piscataquis County Sheriff John Goggin said Ginn Gebo was shot to death with her own gun after wounding Burton as he broke into her home. The manhunt, which was concentrated in southern Piscataquis County where Burton grew up, involved hundreds of law enforcement personnel from multiple agencies in and outside Maine, including the FBI, which came in force to Maine on June 20 to assist and continued working with local agents until the end.
It is one of the longest active manhunts for a person suspected of murder on record, according to the Maine State Police.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
