A Maine man has been charged with murder after shooting his girlfriend multiple times at their home in Farmington and then claiming it was an accident.
Maine State Police said a 911 call came in on Sunday at about 7:30 p.m. after the shooting. First responders took the badly wounded woman, 23-year-old Makayla Rose Desantis, to MaineHealth Franklin Hospital. From there, she was life-flighted to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she died.
Her boyfriend, 24-year-old Austin Doucette, was arrested on Monday evening.
An affidavit filed in the case says that Desantis was shot twice in the chest and that investigators found three spent shell casings on the floor of their condo, WMTW reported.
Doucette, meanwhile, told a paramedic that his gun just “went off” and that Desantis was shot once. In the course of two 911 calls he made, he told dispatch “I [had] a gunshot go off” and “I can’t believe I did this” while apologizing to Desantis. In the second call he told the dispatcher “my girlfriend has a gunshot wound” and “it accidentally went off.” He further said “I would never do this” and “I don’t want to go to jail.”
Doucette put Desantis into a car and attempted to drive to a hospital, the affidavit said, calling his father and saying he was being chased by police, according to another 911 call placed by the father’s girlfriend. She told the dispatcher that Doucette said that something had happened to Desantis and he was going to kill himself. The father told him not to do that, and the girlfriend hung up her 911 call when she was told police had stopped him.
An ambulance took Desantis to the hospital from there.
Meanwhile, officers went back to the condo, where they found the spent shell casings from a .45 caliber handgun, which they found on the couch. The slide on the gun was locked to the rear and the magazine was lying next to the gun. In addition to the three spent casings, a round that had not been fired was on the couch.
The affidavit said that one round went through the coffee table and the floor, damaging the ceiling of the unit below. Investigators were unable to find that bullet. Another bullet went through a pillow on the couch and into the back of the sofa That bullet was found in the couch stuffing. A third bulletwas recovered from the floor behind the couch after it went through another pillow.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled DeSantis’s death a homicide by multiple gunshot wounds. The medical examiner said she was shot twice in the chest.
Doucette’s attorney, Verne E. Paradie, repeated his client’s claims that he shot his girlfriend multiple times by accident.
“This appears to be a terrible accident and we hope to get more information in the near future regarding the circumstances of the situation,” Paradie said in a statement.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Austin Doucette/Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and Makayla Rose Desantis/GoFundMe]
