Oxycontin News Blog

HOULTON - By the time Daniel Boles gets out of prison he still will be 13 years younger than the victim of his crime was at the time of her death.

Boles, 31, was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison with all but 13 years suspended on a charge of felony murder stemming from the death of 57-year-old Jacqueline Shorey.

Boles pleaded guilty to the charge last month, and his sentence was handed down Thursday in Aroostook County Superior Court by Justice E. Allen Hunter.

Boles has been in jail since Dec. 18, 2005, and will get credit for time served.

When he gets out of prison, he also will be on probation for four years with numerous conditions.

The sentence was significantly less than the 30 years in prison with all but 25 years suspended and four years’ probation, which had been requested by Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson.

Hunter said he considered the cruelty of the crime and the "fear and conscious pain" Shorey must have felt before her death before imposing sentence. He also considered what he called Boles’ "serious" criminal record, which stretches back more than a decade. Hunter weighed that against his feeling that Boles was remorseful and had accepted responsibility for the crime and the 31-year-old’s overall health when handing down the sentence. Boles reportedly suffers from kidney failure and undergoes dialysis three times a week.

Hunter acknowledged that because Boles’ health is so poor, "any sentence I impose could be a life sentence."

Boles appeared in court Thursday with his attorneys, Christopher Leger and Ted Smith. He was shackled and clad in the same black suit and white shirt he wore when he entered his plea to the charge last month.

Shorey was found dead inside a blood-spattered room at the Scottish Inns in Houlton on Dec 9, 2005. Her body was discovered partially upright, leaning between two beds.

Benson said Thursday that Boles committed the crime with the intent of robbing Shorey of drugs and money he knew she had in her motel room.

Shorey checked into the motel on Dec. 6 and was scheduled to appear at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Dec. 9. She then planned to return to Louisiana.

When Shorey did not appear for the bankruptcy hearing, friends asked motel staff to check on her well-being. Her body was found later that evening.

An autopsy determined that Shorey had died of "multiple trauma to the head and neck" and that she had been beaten and stabbed. One of the stab wounds severed her vocal chords.

Police believe Shorey had been selling OxyContin out of her motel room since she had returned to Houlton a short time before her death.

Her son, Tim Shorey, was incarcerated at the time of the incident and told investigators that his mother had returned to Maine from Louisiana on Dec. 1 and had planned to sell both her own and his prescriptions to raise $10,000 needed for his bail.

Police seized a number of items from the crime scene, including an envelope with red and brown stains on it and a purse.

Several witnesses told investigators that in the hours after the murder Boles had in his possession a number of white pills and a large sum of money.

Benson said those pills were consistent with the pills Shorey had been selling.

Witnesses also reportedly told police they saw Boles wearing a specific baseball cap on Dec. 9.

During a subsequent search of an apartment that Boles shared with his girlfriend, police found a denim jacket with red and brown stains on it. When Boles was arrested on Dec. 18, he had on the baseball cap that witnesses described him as wearing on Dec. 9.

Analysts found Shorey’s blood on the cap and on the sleeves of Boles’ denim jacket. Her blood and some of Boles’ DNA were found on the purse at the scene of the crime. Fabric from Boles’ denim jacket left an impression in the blood on the envelope found in the motel room.

Boles admitted to purchasing drugs from Shorey on Dec. 4, but denied that he murdered her.

He implicated two other individuals in the crime, saying he sat in a vehicle on Dec. 9 while the two men went inside Shorey’s room to rob her of drugs and cash.

Boles told police the two men came running out to the vehicle five to seven minutes later with blood on their hands.

When he asked them what had happened, the two allegedly told Boles "she resisted." Boles said he then went into Shorey’s room, touched her neck and determined she was dead.

The two implicated by Boles denied their involvement in the murder and have not been charged.

"There is no evidence to support charging anyone else in this crime," Benson said after the hearing.

During Thursday’s hearing, Leger said Boles had been addicted to drugs since he was 13 years old. Shorey, according to Leger, was a friend of Boles’ and a source of his drugs.

Boles told Hunter that his long-term drug use destroyed his kidneys, and he now suffers from chronic kidney failure and undergoes dialysis three times a week.

Leger and Smith said Boles was remorseful for the crime and had taken responsibility for his role in Shorey’s death by pleading guilty and avoiding a trial. They argued for a lesser sentence than the one suggested by Benson.

Speaking to the court, Boles said he was "very sorry" for what happened.

"I’m very sorry that the chain of events that happened led to the death of a friend of mine," he said. "I feel really sorry it happened ... I feel sorry for her family ... I am punishing my kids more than I am being punished."

Boles’ girlfriend, Michelle Randall, also testified to his drug addiction and characterized him as a "really caring person." The couple has three children, who, until recently, had been told that their father was away in a hospital.

Some members of Shorey’s family were in the courtroom, but none of them spoke during the proceedings. Her sister Judy Helms and niece Katrina Lincecum, both of Louisiana, submitted victim impact statements to the court.

Both women wrote of feeling a profound sense of loss in their lives because of the murder of Shorey, a mother, former phlebotomist and school bus driver who loved softball and excelled at the sport.

Benson said that while he was disappointed with the overall sentence, he still felt justice had been served for Shorey.

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