Police say accused recounted slayings

PORTLAND – A restaurant cook willingly told police in chilling detail how he killed four people in western Maine last Labor Day weekend, according to detectives who interviewed him.

Maine State Police Detective Jennifer King testified Tuesday that Christian Nielsen gave a two-hour audiotaped interview detailing how he fatally shot James Whitehurst, an Arkansas man who was a guest at the Black Bear Bed and Breakfast in Newry, where Nielsen also was staying.

Nielsen also described how he shot and killed the inn’s owner two days later, before killing the inn owner’s daughter and her friend a day after that, King said during a hearing in Cumberland County Superior Court.

The interview took place after police had fed Nielsen, let him use the bathroom and given him a change of clothes for the bloody ones he had been wearing when he was arrested. Police and Nielsen talked about hobbies, literature and other topics before the interview turned serious.

“We’re talking about dead people, OK? Is that something you want me to talk about?” Nielsen is heard saying on the tape.

He then offers his story. “I’ll tell you exactly what happened,” he said.

Nielsen, 32, is charged with killing Whitehurst; inn owner Julie Bullard, 65; her daughter Selby Bullard, 30, of Bethel; and Selby’s friend Cindy Beatson, 43, also of Bethel. He is accused of burning Whitehurst’s body and dismembering the women’s bodies.

Nielsen has pleaded not criminally responsible by reason of mental disease or defect.

The two-day hearing concluded Tuesday on a defense motion seeking to exclude Nielsen’s statements and other evidence from his trial on four counts of murder.

His attorneys are asking that statements which led to the victims’ bodies be excluded from evidence at his trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin in October. They say the statements, plus other evidence uncovered as a result of those statements, should be thrown out because Nielsen lacked the mental capacity to voluntarily waive his right to remain silent.

Justice Robert Crowley is expected to review additional audiotapes and videotapes of the case and consider any legal citations from attorneys before deciding if Nielsen’s statements and evidence gleaned from them should be allowed.