HOULTON – A Houlton man accused of killing a Houlton woman inside her motel room more than 15 months ago pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of felony murder.

Daniel Boles, 31, entered the plea before Superior Court Justice E. Allen Hunter in Aroostook County Superior Court in Houlton.

He is scheduled for sentencing on April 19. Boles was accused of beating and stabbing to death 57-year-old Jacqueline Shorey in her motel room at the Scottish Inns on Dec. 9, 2005.

He was indicted by the Aroostook County grand jury on a charge of intentional or knowing murder last January. He pleaded not guilty to the crime and has been incarcerated at the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton ever since.

He was scheduled to go to trial on May 14. Earlier this week, however, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson filed the felony murder charge against Boles in place of the original charge.

A conviction for felony murder carries a lesser sentence than a conviction for intentional or knowing murder. Boles could receive a sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

Flanked by his attorneys, Christopher Leger and Ted Smith, Boles stood in a black suit and white shirt as he listened to the evidence against him. Pale and with his feet in shackles, he appeared slightly thinner than he was last year. Boles spoke only to answer questions posed to him by Hunter or to confer with his attorneys.

Boles told Hunter that he is on several medications and receives dialysis treatments, as he suffers from chronic kidney failure.

During the hearing, Benson said Shorey’s body was discovered partially upright leaning between two beds when investigators went to the crime scene on Dec. 9, and that blood was spattered throughout the room.

Shorey checked into the motel on Dec. 6 and was scheduled to appear at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Dec. 9. She then planned to return to Louisiana.

When Shorey did not appear for the bankruptcy hearing, friends asked motel staff to check on her well-being. Her body was discovered later that evening.

Investigators believe Shorey was still alive in the morning hours of Dec. 9 because investigators arriving at the crime scene found a number of appliances – including a coffee pot and a curling iron – were turned on.

An autopsy determined that the former phlebotomist and school bus driver had died of “multiple trauma to the head and neck” and had been beaten and stabbed.

One of the stab wounds severed her vocal chords, Benson said Thursday.

No weapons were present in the room, and Benson could not comment Thursday on what kind of object was used to stab Shorey.

Benson said investigators believe Boles went to the motel on Dec. 9 with the intention of robbing Shorey, who police believe had been selling OxyContin out of her motel room since she returned to Houlton a short time before her death.

The victim’s son, Tim Shorey, was incarcerated at the time of the incident and told investigators that his mother had returned to Maine from Louisiana on Dec. 1 and had planned to sell both her own and his prescriptions to raise $10,000 needed for his bail.

Benson said police seized a number of items from the crime scene, including an envelope with red and brown stains on it and a purse.

Several witnesses told investigators that Boles had a number of white pills and a large sum of money in the hours after the murder.

Benson said those pills were consistent with the pills that Shorey had been selling.

Witnesses also reportedly told police they saw Boles wearing a specific baseball cap on Dec. 9.

During a subsequent search of an apartment that Boles shared with his girlfriend, police found a denim jacket with red and brown stains on it. When Boles was arrested on Dec. 18, he was sporting the baseball cap that witnesses described him as wearing on Dec. 9.

Benson said analysts found Shorey’s blood on the cap and on the sleeves of Boles’ denim jacket, and her blood and some of Boles’ DNA were found on the purse at the scene of the crime.

Benson said fabric from Boles’ denim jacket left an impression in the blood on the envelope found in the motel room.

Maine State Police Detective Dale Keegan saw “small cuts” on the knuckles of Boles’ right hand during an interview on Dec. 11, cuts he said he believed appeared recent.

Boles told police he had purchased drugs from Shorey on Dec. 4, but denied that he murdered her.

He implicated two other individuals in the crime, saying he sat in a vehicle on Dec. 9 while the two men went inside Shorey’s room to rob her of drugs and cash.

He claimed the duo had come to his home that morning and asked him for a ride to the motel to carry out a plan to knock Shorey unconscious and “take her drugs and money.”

Boles told police the two men came running out to the vehicle five to seven minutes later with blood on their hands.

The two allegedly told Boles “she resisted” when he asked them what had happened. Boles said he then went into Shorey’s room, touched her neck and determined she was dead.

During interviews with police, the two implicated by Boles denied their involvement in the murder and have not been charged.