ALFRED — Connor MacCalister said she would like to spend life in prison for killing Saco resident Wendy Boudreau.

MacCalister, 31, pleaded guilty to the murder charge at York County Superior Court in Alfred Thursday afternoon.

MacCalister confessed to police to fatally stabbing the 59-year-old grandmother at the Saco Valley Shopping Center Shaw’s supermarket Aug. 19. Since her arrest, she has been held in isolation at York County Jail in Alfred.

MacCalister was born Tanisha Hopkins and had previously identified as a man. Her attorney, Robert LeBrasseur, said MacCalister has stopped hormone treatments and now would like to be addressed as a woman.

MacCalister, slight in stature, appeared in court wearing a blue polo shirt. She had appeared in court previously with a shaven head, and her hair, while still short, has grown out since her last court appearance.

MacCalister pleaded guilty against the advice of her attorney. Justice John O’Neil Jr. asked MacCalister if she understood that by pleading guilty she waived the right for an insanity defense or limited capacity defense.

“Do you understand you will forever be giving up your rights?” asked O’Neil.

“Yes, your honor,” replied MacCalister.

If found guilty of murder, the sentence is 25 years to life in prison.

MacCalister has stated, according to the judge and her attorney, that she wants a life sentence. Under Maine law, someone with a life sentence is not subject for early release.

“You have someone who is trying to do the right thing, for her own reasons, as well as to make it better for the victim’s family,” said LeBrasseur.

MacCalister is scheduled to appear in court again for sentencing on Nov. 23 at 1 p.m.

MacCalister wrote Boudreau a letter on Aug. 19, stating she was sorry, and when she later found out Boudreau was dead, she wrote Boudreau’s family a letter.

“Dear Mam,” she wrote in the letter written to Boudreau. “My name is Connor n today I messed up n slit your throat. You did nothing to deserve that n I want you to kno that I’m really sorry for wat I did.”

MacCalister slit Boudreau’s throat in the frozen food aisle of Shaw’s.

MacCalister told police she was angry with life and had been planning for a month to kill several random people at the Saco grocery store, according to the criminal complaint. MacCalister also told police she planned on targeting a small elderly woman who she knew wouldn’t resist.

A Shaw’s employee said she asked MacCalister why she stabbed Boudreau, and MacCalister replied, “I’m off my meds. She looked at me wrong,” according to police reports.

According to a psychological exam by State Chief Forensic Psychologist Debra Baeder, MacCalister has mental health issues, but her decision-making is “not so disordered as to impair her ability to make realitybased decisions.”

MacCalister has previously been hospitalized at Riverview Psychiatric Center and Spring Harbor Hospital. She has been diagnosed in the past with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.

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