Insanity plea entered in B&B slaying case

SOUTH PARIS – A man accused of killing four people over Labor Day weekend has changed his plea, signaling an insanity defense.

Christian Nielsen’s attorney changed Nielsen’s plea from “not guilty” to “not criminally responsible” for his actions as he was transferred this week to Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta after a hunger strike at Cumberland County Jail.

Nielsen, 32, was committed to Riverview for assessment and treatment, but the transfer was delayed to allow him to regain his strength.

He lost 55 pounds – dropping from 158 pounds to 103 pounds – before Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion obtained a court order to insert a feeding tube. He chose to begin eating again, so the sheriff didn’t have to follow through on the court order.

Nielsen, who is being held without bail while awaiting trial on four counts of murder, was transferred to Cumberland County Jail days after his arrest after he allegedly attacked a fellow inmate at Oxford County Jail in Paris.

He was placed on a suicide watch in December after using a disposable razor to make cuts on his scalp that resembled the letter X.

Authorities say Nielsen confessed to the slayings, which took place while he was staying at the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast, a 130-year-old converted farmhouse near the Sunday River ski resort in Newry. He was working as a cook at another inn nearby.

On Sept. 1, authorities said, he killed James Whitehurst, 50, of Batesville, Ark., a handyman who had been staying at the B&B and helping out the owner. Authorities said Nielsen burned and disposed of Whitehurst’s body in the woods in Upton.

On Sept. 3, he allegedly killed the Black Bear’s owner, Julie Bullard, 65. The next day, Labor Day, he allegedly killed Bullard’s daughter Selby, 30, and her friend Cindy Beatson, 43, when they arrived at the inn unexpectedly. All three women were dismembered.