PORTLAND – The state supreme court on Tuesday rejected quadruple murderer Christian Nielsen’s appeal aimed at tossing statements he made to state police after he killed and dismembered the victims over a four-day period in western Maine.

Nielsen last year entered a conditional guilty plea to four counts of murder and was sentenced to life in prison for the killing spree. But he could have taken back the plea if he had been able to persuade the supreme court to suppress his confession to troopers.

After the killings, Nielsen blurted out a confession to the first trooper to arrive on the bloody scene at the Black Bear Inn in Newry, telling Trooper Dan Hanson, “Well, I killed some people, Dan. I shot them all.” Then he told the trooper where the gun could be found, in a tool chest.

After being told his Miranda rights, Nielsen went on to clarify that all of the victims were dead and to give directions to the remains of an Arkansas man whose incinerated remains were left in the woods in Upton, miles away from the Black Bear Inn where the other bodies were found.

Then he retold the story to a state police detective in a formal interview at a fire station after being notified of his Miranda rights for a second time.

After his indictment, Nielsen’s legal team filed a motion to suppress all statements he made to police, as well as physical evidence obtained from those statements.

In its unanimous decision, the state supreme court upheld a lower court judge’s decision to let most of the statements be admitted as evidence.

The killings took place over Labor Day weekend in 2006.

The first victim, James Whitehurst of Batesville, Ark., was killed in Upton, where his remains were recovered. The other three, Julie Bullard of Newry, Selby Bullard of Bethel, and Cindy Beatson of Bethel, were killed at the Black Bear Inn.

The defense keyed in on an exchange between Nielsen and his father, Charles Nielsen, after the son was placed in a police cruiser outside the inn. The father asked Nielsen, “Shouldn’t you wait for counsel?” Nielsen responded, “Yeah, not a bad idea.”

Trooper Hanson, trying to determine the number of victims, told Nielsen: “I know you invoked your rights and you want to speak to counsel. But I need to ask this question … Is there any chance there is anyone here alive? I don’t want to leave someone out there bleeding.”