Joseph Eaton withdrew his insanity defense late last year and his defense attorney told The Associated Press that they anticipate “resolving” the indictments for four counts of murder and other charges during a change-of-plea hearing.

Prosecutors declined comment on any plea agreement ahead of the court hearing.

Law enforcement officials say Eaton confessed to the killings on a property in rural Bowdoin, and to wounding three more people while shooting at vehicles on Interstate 295 in Yarmouth. The shootings came days after Eaton was released from prison for unrelated crimes. Eaton has been jailed again since his arrest in April 2023 near the tumultuous scene along the highway, where traffic came to a halt as heavily armed police searched for the gunman.

Those killed were Eaton’s parents, Cynthia Eaton, 62, and David Eaton, 66, along with longtime friends Robert Eger, 72, and Patti Eger, 62, the couple who owned the Bowdoin home where they all were staying. Also killed was the family dog, resulting in an animal cruelty charge.

Soon after the bodies were discovered on April 18, 2023, three people were injured when shots were fired wildly on I-295 in Yarmouth, about 12 miles outside Portland, Maine’s biggest city. Eaton faced separate indictments because the two shootings at the Bowdoin home and on the highway happened in different counties.

Maine Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck called the shootings “an attack on the soul of our state.” But the heavy toll of the crime was surpassed months later when an Army reservist, who also lived in Bowdoin, killed 18 people at two locations in Lewiston, in what would become the state’s deadliest mass shooting.

Police still don’t know Eaton’s motive for the slayings.

An unsigned note found at the scene of the killings mentioned “someone being freed of pain and that the writer of the note wanted a new life,” according to a criminal affidavit. Eaton told the Portland Press Herald newspaper in jailhouse interviews that he was not in control of his actions at the time of the shootings and didn’t understand why he did it.

Eaton, 35, had a criminal history in Maine, Kansas and Florida, and had just completed a prison stint in Maine triggered by an aggravated assault case. Eaton’s parents were staying with their friends in Bowdoin after Cynthia Eaton picked up Joseph Eaton at a Maine prison on April 14.

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ORONO, Maine (WABI) – In the early hours of Monday Morning Firefly Aerospace is set to launch a rocket into orbit.

And it’s bringing a satellite, known as a CubeSat, that was built by students at the University of Maine.

“I think it’s exciting that the first time at the university level that we have folks like Ali and his students that developed CubeSats and they’re gonna launch them. We have had other examples at the K-12 level that have worked with organizations that we supported outside of the state to help students prepare CubeSats but this is the first case where we had actually developed a CubeSat from scratch,” said Terry Shehata the Executive Director of the Maine Space Grant Consortium.

The satellite called MESAT1 is carrying three payloads that were designed by middle and high school students to record data for studying climate change.

“The cool thing about this project is that the scientists are actually high school students and teachers. In 2019 we ran a competition statewide and 11 schools submitted proposals. We selected three and those are the science missions that were defined by the students. These missions include monitoring water bodies for harmful algal blooms, trying to find urban energy islands by monitoring albedo, and also they are looking into turbidity of water concentration of phytoplankton,” said Doctor Ali Abedi, a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maine.

Dr. Abedi says that he hopes this kind of work can help inspire students.

“I think if you ask someone to learn something without telling them why they’re not motivated. You can ask somebody to just learn math in abstract way without telling them why that’s useful. I think this project helps the students understand what they want to do and what the impact is. And then they came back and said oh, if I want to do this, I now need to learn physics. I need to learn this course of math, I need to learn like aerospace. I think the motivation and enthusiasm that was instigated by this project to this level definitely priceless,” said Dr. Abedi.

A livestream of the launch can be found here.

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Maine’s 360-thousand anglers could see new fishing regulations in January designed to protect some fish populations and control others.

Department spokesman Mark Latti says the state’s biologists monitor fish populations in Maine’s lakes, ponds and rivers and recommend action based on what they find.

“These regulations are a yearly maintenance where we look at different waters and make changes to ensure we have healthy fish populations throughout the state,” Latti said.

Latti says Maine’s native Brook Trout is one species that needs better protection.

“Maine is fortunate in that we have a thriving native brook trout population, but with climate change and development and other impacts, we need to do all that we can to protect our native brook trout populations,” he said.

Latti says other species addressed by the proposed changes include lake whitefish and landlocked salmon.

A public hearing on the new regulations will be held Monday, July 15 at Inland, Fisheries and Wildlife headquarters in Augusta.

If approved by the Commissioner’s Advisory Council the changes will go into effect in January.