A 22-year-old Freeport man charged with murder indiscriminately terrorized people during a weekend rampage that left an 82-year-old Scarborough man dead and a West Bath woman hospitalized following a sexual assault, according to police affidavits filed in court Thursday.
Quinton Hanna is accused of killing Jim Pearson of Scarborough, seen on his tractor at his Beech Ridge Farm in November 1999. Staff file photo
Quinton Hanna gave investigators no indication of a motive for the alleged crimes Sunday. However, his mother told investigators that her son has schizophrenia and may not have been taking his medication.
“The state anticipates that one of the likely issues in this case will be whether at the time of the offense the defendant was able to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Robert L. Ellis Jr. in his motion requesting a psychiatric evaluation, which was approved by Justice Daniel Billings.
Hanna told investigators nothing about the alleged crimes during an interview – he told police that he was going to do some Christmas shopping in Portland on Sunday and that he was in a car accident and hurt himself. When a detective asked about whether he stopped at a Christmas tree farm, referring to where James “Jim” Pearson was stabbed to death, Hanna invoked his right to speak with an attorney and ended the interview, according to police records.
Hanna did not speak during his brief appearance Thursday morning in Cumberland County Unified Criminal Court, and was surrounded by court officers and corrections staff. His attorney, Andrew Wright, agreed to the requested psychiatric evaluation and reserved arguments over bail pending a further hearing.
The court appearance was delayed because Hanna assaulted a corrections officer while he was being prepared for transportation to the jail around 7:30 a.m., said Maj. Tim Kortes, the jail administrator. The corrections officer sustained minor injuries and was treated and released, Kortes said.
Hanna was restrained with handcuffs and a waist chain in court and is now being held in the highest security unit of the jail, according to jail records.
Although a police affidavit lays out new details about the felony allegations and raises the question of Hanna’s mental state at the time of the alleged killing, there is no explanation of why Hanna was in Scarborough shortly after 8 a.m. on Sunday, what may have led him to stab Pearson to death, or why he then drove to West Bath, where more apparently random attacks occurred, according to police.
The affidavit by Maine State Police Detective Jonathan Heimbach describes how Hanna approached or broke into three other homes near Pearson’s Beech Ridge Road home. The affidavit also suggests that Pearson may have been standing outside his pickup truck when Hanna pulled into the driveway about 8:15 a.m., according to a witness, Michael Darling, who told police he was driving past Pearson’s home at the time.
Pearson had told his wife that he was stepping out for cigarettes. When he came back into the home a short time later, he was bleeding from three stab wounds. Pearson’s family rushed to his aid, but he died a short time later at the hospital. The Medical Examiner’s Office determined Pearson died of perforated lungs and blood loss.
One of the other homes targeted in the area was on Den Drive, about a mile from Pearson’s home, according to police. The property owner told police that someone forced their way inside and the only item that appeared to have been stolen was a knife, which was missing from a knife block. Police have not charged Hanna in connection with that incident, and police are still searching for the knife that was used to stab Pearson.
Another neighbor who lives on Holmes Road, Arlene Vallancourt told police that about 10 or 15 minutes before police descended on Pearson’s home, a man fitting Hanna’s description knocked on her door and asked for “Jon,” but Vallancourt did not open the door and the man left the area. He appeared confused but not agitated, Vallancourt told police, and she later picked Hanna out of a photo lineup as the person who knocked, according to the affidavit.
Scarborough police found another witness, John Kane, who lives up a long driveway along Holmes Road. In an interview Thursday, Kane said he was at home sick in bed when pounding at the front door woke him up.
Kane, 56, said he looked down from his second floor and saw a young man outside whom he didn’t recognize. Kane did not answer the door and the young man began walking away down the driveway. Kane said he then went downstairs, heard a car door close, and saw the young man drive away, after apparently blocking Kane’s driveway with his Subaru.
Kane thought the situation was odd, and got into his van and drove around the neighborhood, but did not spot the man’s car.
“I still don’t know what he was going to do,” Kane said. “He was either going to kill me or rape my wife.”
On a typical Sunday morning, Kane said, he usually does yard work outside his house.
“I would have been in the driveway then,” he said. “Being sick saved my life.”
When Kane awoke later in the day, he still felt strange about what had happened and called police, who interviewed him about what he had seen.
The affidavit also describes how state police investigators working the crime scene at Pearson’s home began hearing from other police agencies about other incidents with possible connections to Hanna. The first was from Freeport, where police were investigating a stabbing that had happened the night before, on Saturday, at a home on Wardtown Road.
In that case, Clifford Nadeau, 69 told police he saw someone pull into his driveway about 7:45 p.m., but Nadeau wasn’t expecting anyone. A man in his late 20s with a close-cropped beard approached the front door and asked for someone by name. When Nadeau said no one by that name lived at the home, the man stepped forward and stabbed Nadeau twice in the chest. Hanna has not been charged in that incident, but police said previously that Nadeau’s home is about a mile from Hanna’s home on Grant Road in Freeport, and that the investigation was continuing.
Hanna’s next alleged victim was a woman out for a jog on Birch Point Road in West Bath. The woman told police she saw a silver Subaru pass her and then stop ahead of her. When she approached the vehicle, the driver asked her to look under his vehicle because something was dragging. When she started to walk away, the man grabbed her arm, brandished a dark blue utility knife and dragged her into the woods.
When the woman started screaming, the man held the knife to her throat and began sexually assaulting her as she lay on the ground. The woman then kicked him in the groin, stunning him long enough for her to get up and run away down the road. Hanna got back in the car and drove after her, police said. In an interview with officers, the woman said she could hear the engine rev up. When the vehicle got close to her, the woman veered into the woods, but the vehicle followed her and ran her over, shattering two bones in her left leg.
The car continued on into the woods, hitting a tree and pinning the driver inside. Around that time, neighbors and police began to arrive in time to see Hanna flee into the woods. A police officer gave chase but could not catch Hanna, according to the affidavit.
Police believe Hanna then went to the home of Suzanne Temple, 72, on West Side Drive. Temple told police that a man knocked on her door, told her that he needed help and asked to use her phone. The man let himself into her foyer, and when she went to hand him the phone, he brandished a box cutter and told her to get her car keys.
Temple froze, and the man asked her, “Do you want to die?” and threatened to stab her unless she got her car keys. Temple’s husband then pointed a loaded handgun at Hanna, and Hanna fled again.
Police believe Hanna then stole an SUV that he found at another home nearby. The 2014 Ford Explorer was unlocked and had the keys inside, according to police. Officers located and stopped the stolen vehicle before noon Sunday and arrested Hanna.
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