Murder suspect confesses Police affidavit chronicles events surronding Marshfield shootings

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MACHIAS – The suspect in Wednesday’s double homicide in Marshfield said little at his initial court appearance Thursday afternoon, but he reportedly told detectives plenty in the hours before his arrest.

During a lengthy interview with police Wednesday morning and afternoon, Richard W. Widdecombe Jr., 25, waived his Miranda rights and confessed to the murders of Katie Cabana, 29, and Aaron Settipani, 41, court documents revealed.

Widdecombe made his brief appearance in Machias District Court on Thursday by videoconference from the nearby jail.

“There was no sense in putting the court at risk by bringing him over,” Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith said, adding that the courtroom is small and was expected to be crowded.

As more than two dozen court officials and audience members looked at Widdecombe’s image on the TV screen, the suspect stood in front of a bare table inside the jail, his shoulders slumped, his head down and his hands clasped in front of him. Judge John Romei read the murder charges.

When asked whether he understood them, Widdecombe’s court-appointed attorneys, David Mitchell and Jeffrey Davidson, spoke for their client and said he did.

Widdecombe then was ordered held at the Washington County Jail pending a bail hearing, which was tentatively scheduled for 9 a.m. Feb. 4.

While Thursday’s court appearance shed little light on the killings, an affidavit written by Maine State Police Detective Micah Perkins outlined the events in painstaking detail, including that they were witnessed by Cabana’s three young children and heard by two separate police dispatchers.

It started when Widdecombe went to Cabana’s residence on Northfield Road (Route 192) in Marshfield early Wednesday morning, reportedly after speaking to Cabana and learning Settipani was on his way to the home as well. Lt. Jackie Theriault, the lead state police detective, said Wednesday that Widdecombe and Cabana had an “on-off relationship.”

When Widdecombe arrived, Settipani’s Jeep already was parked in the driveway. Armed with a rifle and several cartridges, Widdecombe entered the house, according to Perkins.

He heard what he thought was Cabana and Settipani having sex upstairs and waited for them to come downstairs.

Cabana came down first and an argument ensued. When she saw the gun, she told Widdecombe not to do anything because her children were in the house, the document stated.

Settipani came downstairs next, and Widdecombe yelled at him to leave, which he did.

Widdecombe then followed the man outside and shot at his Jeep. He then went back inside and saw Cabana on the phone calling 911, so he shot her in the back, Perkins wrote.

Widdecombe left the house again and fired several more rounds at Settipani’s Jeep. He then walked up to the driver’s-side door and shot the man twice at close range, according to the court document.

Finally, Widdecombe returned to the house and shot Cabana a second time and accidentally shot her 6-year-old daughter, Autumn Rodgers, in the process. Two other children, Gabriel Brady, 9, and Ethan Rodgers, 5, were home during the shootings but were not injured.

While the early morning shooting spree was taking place, Cabana and Settipani each made 911 calls to police, which also were detailed in Perkins’ arrest affidavit.

Settipani called 911 first from his cell phone after he left Cabana’s residence. Dispatcher Ken Knightly from the Maine State Police barracks in Orono handled the call from Settipani, who told him that Widdecombe was shooting at him.

Knightly told detectives that he then heard talking.

“[Settipani] was saying things like, ‘Everyone makes mistakes … we can work this out … I am leaving,'” the document read.

At that point, Knightly said he heard what he thought were two gunshots, then breaking glass, then screaming. Once the screaming stopped, another gunshot rang out, the dispatcher said.

Meanwhile, Cabana had placed a 911 call from her house phone around the same time, according to Perkins, which was handled by John Rolfe at the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Rolfe told detectives that Cabana was screaming and that he could hear children screaming in the background. He also heard gunshots.

The dispatcher said the shooting had stopped but no one was on the phone. He heard a child say, “Are you shot, too?”

All three children later told police that they saw Widdecombe shoot their mother. Autumn Rodgers said the man “shot her mommy and now they have to bury her,” Perkins wrote in his affidavit. At least two of the children were staying with family Thursday. Autumn’s condition was not available.

Police found Widdecombe later Wednesday morning at his residence in Machias, about five miles from Marshfield where the shootings took place.

A state police tactical team surrounded the residence and shut down parts of Machias as a precaution, but a negotiator convinced Widdecombe to come outside without incident and he was taken into custody.

Six hours later, he was arrested and taken to Washington County Jail.

The arrest affidavit seemed to indicate that Widdecombe acted out of jealously toward Cabana, but the young man has no prior criminal history, let alone any violent history.

“From everyone I’ve talked to about him, they never expected this,” Sheriff Smith said.

Widdecombe was employed at the Hannaford supermarket in Machias, police have said, but they didn’t know for how long. The store manager declined to comment Thursday from the store on Route 1, although she did attend his court appearance later that day.

Smith said he heard that Widdecombe had been in the Army recently but had been discharged. State police spokesman Stephen McCausland confirmed that Widdecombe was in the Army but had never been deployed overseas.

Sheriff Smith also said the young man had been in foster homes for many years, but he didn’t have any contact information for his last known foster family.

Similarly, Cabana was not well-known in the Marshfield and Machias communities, the sheriff said.

She lived with her three children at the home in Marshfield, but police didn’t know whether she worked in the area.

The woman’s father, who lives in Florida and admitted he was not close to his daughter, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that his daughter had struggled with mental health issues during her adult years.

erussell@bangordailynews.net

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