DOVER-FOXCROFT — Stephanie Gebo was so afraid of former boyfriend Robert Burton that she changed the locks at her house and slept with a gun by her pillow.

She was last seen alive when she tucked her 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son into bed around 8:30 p.m. on June 4, according to police affidavits released Wednesday at Piscataquis County Superior Court.

When her daughter left her second-floor room and went downstairs the next morning, she saw her mother on the floor of her bedroom, face down in a pool of blood with several gunshot wounds in her back. Gebo, who was unresponsive, had been bound with duct tape.

The girl got her brother out of bed and called 911. As she was calling, she saw a camouflage backpack and jacket outside that she recognized as Burton’s. Inside the backpack, police said, they later found a knife, duct tape and bottled medication prescribed for Burton. In the jacket, police said, they found Burton’s cellphone.

Police had sought Burton, 38, since shortly after Gebo’s killing. After more than two months on the run – police believe he hid in camps and in the thick woods where he grew up – Burton gave himself up Tuesday at the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office.

Medical Examiner Margaret Greenwald, who conducted the autopsy on Gebo on June 7, found multiple gunshot wounds to the lungs, spinal area and trachea, and determined the death was a homicide.

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Burton appeared in court Wednesday wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and orange Crocs on his feet. His hands and feet were shackled, his head was shaved and he appeared to be about the same weight as when he disappeared in early June, raising speculation that he was getting help when he was on the run.

He was ordered held without bail, and a bail hearing was set for Monday. Burton is charged with being a fugitive from justice and is a suspect in Gebo’s slaying. He entered no plea.

Vance Ginn, Gebo’s father, said on Tuesday that family members were relieved when Burton surrendered, saying “it’s been totally on our minds for the last nine weeks” and has “engulfed us the whole time.”

Leaving the courthouse Wednesday, Gebo’s family members said they had been told they shouldn’t comment further on the case.

Burton has a lengthy criminal record that includes spending more than 10 years in prison for domestic violence.

A man described as a lifelong friend of Burton’s told police that he spoke with him before Gebo was killed, and said Burton had talked about breaking up with her because he suspected she had cheated on him. The friend described Burton’s eyes as “black” and said he told him not to do “anything stupid with Steph,” to which Burton said not to worry – he was just mad at Gebo.

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Another friend told police that Burton once said “if he has problems with a woman again he is going to kill her.”

Gebo’s fear for herself and children is recounted in the affidavit, written by state police Detective Thomas Pickering and released by the court Wednesday.

Her children told police that Burton had lived with them at 46 Kulas Road in Parkman for about two years and that he had moved out May 31 to live with his parents. Stephanie Gebo had then changed the house locks, and slept with a gun near her pillow or under the comforter because she was scared of Burton.

She told her son “she was afraid Robert would hurt” the children and that Burton was “an angry person.”

The 13-year-old daughter told police that Burton was “always angry” and accused her mother of cheating on him.

Both children told police that “Robert is not supposed to have guns; that Robert has a lot of guns; that he has pistols, rifles and shotguns,” according to the affidavit.

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Burton’s father, Roger, told police he spoke with his son on June 4, and the younger Burton was upset and “at the end of his rope,” saying he had discovered messages on Gebo’s old phone and he suspected she was cheating on him.

Authorities have not said what type of gun was used to kill Gebo, but Detective Micah Perkins found four 9 mm shell casings and the window open in the bedroom where Gebo’s body was found, the affidavit said.

A gun shop owner near the Abbott/Guilford town line sold Gebo a 9 mm handgun about three years ago, police said. On June 4, Robert Burton told his father that Gebo had purchased “either a Glock or Colt 9 mm handgun,” according to the affidavit.

There appeared to be a bullet hole in the bathroom ceiling and another hole in a pillow that was consistent with the passage of a bullet. Perkins also found black duct tape similar to duct tape found in Burton’s backpack and wrapped around Gebo’s wrists.

Piscataquis County Sheriff John Goggin told WVII-TV in July that Burton was wounded by Stephanie Gebo before he turned the gun on her.

“As he was climbing through the window that night, his would-be victim had a handgun and she shot at him,” Goggin said in the interview with the Bangor TV station. “He wasn’t armed at that time. She wounded him slightly, they got in a tussle over the gun and he just lost it. He got the gun away from her and he shot her and he killed her.”

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Deputy Attorney General Lisa Marchese said later that she would not confirm the accuracy of what Goggin said in the interview. Assistant Attorney General John Alsop, the prosecutor, would not comment on the case Wednesday.

At 4:30 a.m. on June 8, Roger Burton found a note from Robert under the windshield wiper of his truck at his home in Monson, telling him where to find Robert’s truck. Another truck was reported stolen from nearby Abbott shortly after, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit also revealed that a man living on Mantor School Road, which intersects with Kulas Road where Gebo lived, saw a man he later identified as Burton parked on his property in a black truck on June 4. The man asked Burton to leave and he did, according to the affidavit.

In court Wednesday, Burton was assigned a court-appointed lawyer, Jeffrey Toothaker of Ellsworth, and Chris Smith was the defense lawyer of the day Wednesday.


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