SOUTH PARIS — A Mexico man who told police he fatally shot his stepson in August because he was tired of being bullied and harassed and feared for his and his family’s life has been charged with murder.

Thomas B. Tellier, 52, is being held without bail at Oxford County Jail in Paris pending a court hearing next week.

Tellier was indicted Friday by an Oxford County grand jury on a charge of intentional or knowing murder.

That charge is punishable by 25 years to life in prison.

Police said Nicholas Trynor, 27, was shot twice in the chest and arms with a Mossberg 500 pump-action, 12-gauge shotgun at the family’s home at 32 Intervale Ave., Mexico, shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6.

Trynor was pronounced dead at the scene.

Tellier told police he had argued with his stepson earlier that day because Tellier’s 5-year-old son, Tommy, who has autism, had hit Trynor. In response, Trynor had slapped the boy, Tellier said.

Tellier told police Trynor was “controlling (and) argumentative” and didn’t treat Tellier’s young son properly, according to a police affidavit.

He said he grabbed a loaded shotgun from his bedroom and went in search of Trynor to make him leave the home, he told police.

When Trynor reportedly threatened Tellier again, he shot him, he told police.

He said Trynor had kept a collection of knives in his room, but hadn’t seen a weapon in his possession at the time of the shooting, according to the affidavit.

Tellier told police he grabbed his gun because the last time Trynor had been in a rage like this one, he’d had a knife.

Maine’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner said an autopsy revealed the cause of death as blood loss due to lung damage. Pellets from the shotgun shells had apparently perforated Trynor’s chest, lungs, diaphragm and heart.

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