FARMINGTON – A Massachusetts man on trial in the murder of an 81-year-old woman last year told detectives in an interview last November that he was sorry for what had happened, but didn’t say how or why he committed the crime.
Juan Contreras, 27, of Waltham, Mass., said he had smoked marijuana laced with what he called “rock” the night Burton was killed in her Farmington apartment, and then blacked out.
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“Somebody put some kind of white powdery stuff in it,” Contreras told police in the interview played Tuesday in Franklin County Superior Court on the second day of his trial. “I think I just lost my mind or something.”
He acknowledged being inside Burton’s apartment June 21, 2011, but never described how or why the woman was stabbed 35 times. She died hours later in a Lewiston hospital.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said in the audio tape played in court. “I still don’t think it’s real.”
Contreras pleaded not guilty in January to the murder charge. He waived his right to a jury trial.
Contreras told the detectives during the November interview that he experienced blackouts.
Keaten suggested in the taped interview that Contreras was angry because the Guatamalan was subjected to racism, lacked a job and believed his wife was cheating on him.
Contreras did not directly answer the questions.
Court-appointed defense lawyer David Sanders said the investigators were trying to establish a motive to strengthen their case because Contreras did not offer one and the crime scene did not reveal one. None of Burton’s valuables or prescription drugs had been taken or touched.
Under cross examination, Chabot said that Contreras repeated 22 times that he didn’t know why he had been in the apartment or why Burton was killed.
In her testimony Tuesday, Contreras’ mother, Gilma Boyd, now of Weymouth, Mass., said her son began drinking and smoking marijuana more heavily six years ago when his stepfather died of an overdose.
Boyd, 50, said her son “treated people nice” and she didn’t think he was capable of murder.
She said her son was born in Guatemala, and she entered the United States illegally when Contreras was 2 years old. Since then, she has secured legal immigration papers, she said.
Under cross examination from Sanders, Boyd said her son had been in several car accidents and suffered from headaches.
He married a Maine woman and moved to Farmington, but was unable to find work and continued drinking, his mother testified.
Police investigators said they have linked Contreras to the scene by matching his DNA to a trail of blood from the rear window of Burton’s apartment. Contreras voluntarily gave a DNA sample to investigators, who collected samples from hundreds of men.
Although badly injured, Burton managed to call police and describe her attacker. She died later that morning at Central Maine Medical Center.
The murder charge carries a 25 years-to-life sentence. The trial continues Wednesday.
Morning Sentinal Staff Writer Doug Harlow can be contacted at 612-2367 or at:
dharlow@mainetoday.com
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