AUGUSTA, Maine (WGME) — A Maine man will spend 15-years-old behind bars for hitting and killing two young twin boys and critically injuring their mother in Albion.

According to Kennebec Journal, 44-year-old Benjamin Lancaster of Albion pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two counts of manslaughter, aggravated assault, aggravated criminal operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of an accident involving serious bodily injury or death.

As part of a plea agreement, Lancaster was sentenced to 25 years in prison with all but 15 years suspended, and four years of probation, according to the Kennebec Journal. This means he’ll serve 15 years in prison before being released on probation. If he violates any condition of his probation, he could serve the full 25-year sentence.

Police said Lancaster was driving on Hussey Road in Albion on July 11, 2025, when he hit 2 1/2-year-old twin brothers, Bradley and Noah Bordeaux, and their mother, Mollie Egold. He then left the scene.

Egold was reportedly walking to a store, pushing her twin sons in a stroller, when police said she was hit from behind by the suspect’s vehicle.

Bradley died at the scene. His twin brother, Noah, was airlifted to Maine Medical Center in Portland where he died a few days later from his injuries.

Egold was critically injured but survived. She suffered a broken back among other injuries.

“He took away our babies. He took away our life, our family,” the twins’ grandmother, Martha Collins, told CBS13 in July 2025. “That man should be charged with murder, not manslaughter. This is murder. He murdered my babies.”

After his arrest, Lancaster tried to blame the deadly crash on his then-girlfriend. According to police affidavits, he told police she was driving. But his brother reportedly told authorities Lancaster admitted to him that he’d hit someone.

Police said security cameras also showed Lancaster behind the wheel with no damage to the car’s front end three miles before the crash. According to police, another camera then showed Lancaster on Main Street in Albion with damage to the front of his car.

According to Kennebec Journal, Lancaster’s blood tested positive for THC methamphetamine, Clotiazepam, an anti-anxiety drug, and methadone.

The Kennebec Journal reports Lancaster agreed to the plea deal to take responsibility for his actions and to spare the family from having to sit through a trial.

This tragedy is sadly not the first for Egold and her family. In 2017, Egold’s oldest son drowned when he and his mother’s canoe got caught in a strong current and went over a waterfall.

His grandmother said 5-year-old William had a life vest on but got caught in debris under the water. His mom freed him, but he died hours later at the hospital.

Mainers will not weigh in on whether to cease recreational cannabis sales in Maine — at least not this November.

Organizers of the petition drive, which seeks to close the recreational cannabis market in Maine and strengthen state oversight of the medical marijuana market, did not submit their petition signatures by Monday’s deadline, the secretary of state’s office confirmed Wednesday.

At least 67,682 signatures, or 10% of the votes cast for governor in 2022, would have had to be submitted by Feb. 2 to put the cannabis question on the November ballot.

That does not necessarily mean the effort is dead, but it does mean it will not go to voters this year. Madison Carey, one of the organizers of the petition drive, did not answer a phone call Wednesday evening and their voicemail inbox was full.

Organizers were seeking to repeal parts of the Maine Cannabis Legalization Act that allows for commercial cultivation, sale, purchase and manufacturing of recreational cannabis and cannabis products. The 15-page proposal, pushed by the political committee Mainers for a Safe and Healthy Future, would end all recreational sales and home-growing operations beginning Jan. 1, 2028. It would also add tracking and testing standards for medicinal cannabis previously opposed by caregivers.

Legalized by voters in 2016, Maine’s recreational marijuana market has grown from $82 million in 2021, the first full year of sales, to $244 million in 2024, the most profitable year yet. Preliminary sales figures put 2025 on pace to reach about $248 million, but final figures have not yet been released, according to data from the state Office of Cannabis Policy.

The petition effort was subject to criticism after some people accused signature collectors of misrepresenting the initiative. One person who spoke with the Press Herald last month said the petition was represented to them as an effort to ensure cannabis was free of toxic chemicals. They only learned it was to end recreational cannabis sales in Maine after they had signed.

At the time, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said there was nothing her office could do if signature gatherers misrepresented a ballot initiative.

“You have a right to lie under the First Amendment,” she said. “I do not have authority to take any enforcement action over the truth of what is being said.”

Funding for the effort came from an out-of-state source. Smart Approach to Marijuana Action Inc., a dark money group from Virginia, was the only donor listed on organizers’ campaign finance reports last month, contributing $2 million.