Kentucky murder suspect surrenders in Fort Kent

FORT KENT – A Kentucky man who fled more than 1,000 miles while he was sought in the throat-slashing death of his girlfriend surrendered after calling police on his cell phone and waiting for them in a hospital parking lot, authorities said Tuesday.

Jamie Adams, 31, of Morehead, Ky., was broke and tired of running when he called 911 Monday afternoon.

Within a short time, officers from the Fort Kent Police Department and the Maine State Police had arrested him on a fugitive-from-justice warrant.

Adams offered no resistance.

He is wanted in Kentucky in the slaying of his girlfriend, Sarah Easton, 32, of Salt Lick, Ky.

Morehead is in Rowan County in eastern Kentucky. It is a college town about 60 miles east-northeast of Lexington, off Interstate 64.

In 1st District Court at Caribou on Tuesday, Adams waived extradition. He was being held in the Aroostook County Jail until officials from Kentucky come to get him, Assistant District Attorney Catherine Cole Francke said.

She did not know when Adams, who refused a lawyer for his court appearance, would be leaving. She said it could be next week by the time officers from Kentucky arrive.

According to Detective Sgt. Greg Motley of the Kentucky State Police, Adams is accused in the death of Easton on Oct. 4. Her body was found five days later, in a mobile home rented to Adams. “She was killed with a knife. Her throat was slashed,” Motley said Tuesday. “We have a warrant charging Adams with murder.”

Fort Kent Police Chief Kenneth Michaud said Adams told Officer Richard Martin that “he had done something terrible to his girlfriend. After that, he didn’t want to talk anymore.”

Michaud said Adams told police he had gone out with a woman from Bangor several years ago and had visited the city. But he had never been north of Bangor, and police believe he ran out of money once he arrived at Fort Kent.

Martin and Trooper Tim Saucier of the Maine State Police arrested Adams around 4 p.m. Monday. Adams was alone in a black 2000 Ford Focus in the parking lot at the rear of Northern Maine Medical Center.

He had used a cell phone to call state police, indicating he wanted to turn himself in. State police contacted Fort Kent police just before 4 p.m. A local officer and a trooper went to the hospital to make the arrest.

Saucier said Adams told a dispatcher that he was from Kentucky, that there was a “bad warrant” out for his arrest, and that he wanted to give himself up.

Police quickly found out there was a murder warrant for Adams’ arrest.

“He just drove up here, got tired of running and called,” Michaud said. “He was driving his girlfriend’s car.”

Saucier said police had no idea how long he had been parked near the ambulance garage at NMMC.

Police found no weapons when they searched him and the car he was driving.