ELLSWORTH, Maine — A man convicted in April of shooting and killing a Trenton man and then drained his bank accounts over the ensuing year was sentenced Thursday in Hancock County Unified Criminal Court to serve 60 years in prison.
At his sentencing, William Morse, 45, tearfully told a judge that he committed the murder because he believed the man had urinated on him while he slept.
Morse told Justice William Anderson that he and the victim, Richard Bellittieri, 60, had been friends, but he became “enraged” when he woke up one morning in July 2012 and found himself covered in urine.
Morse said he could not find Bellittieri when he woke up, so he went to Tremont and got his girlfriend’s gun while she was at work. He then went looking for Bellittieri and, when he later found him back at the Goose Cove Road property, he “blew his brains out.”
Morse had been hired through Craigslist that spring by Bellittieri. He was to help Bellittieri build a duplex on land Bellittieri owned on Goose Cove Road in Trenton, and he was staying at the property with Bellittieri.
Dressed in the clothing issued to him at Maine State Prison in Warren, Morse choked up and cried as he told Anderson what happened.
“The last shot hit him in the foot as he fell backwards,” Morse said. “The money was an afterthought. I did not kill him for his money.”
Morse added that, contrary to what many think, he does feel remorse for killing Bellittieri.
“I know what I did was wrong, and I cannot take it back,” Morse told the judge. “I am truly sorry that I took Rick’s life.”
Anderson, however, said he did not believe Morse’s story. The judge said he believed Morse planned to kill Bellittieri well in advance, after Bellittieri hired Morse to help him build the duplex, so that Morse could take Bellittieri’s money and other possessions, including his real estate and car.
“He had been thinking about it for a while and planning it,” Anderson said. “It was a pretty brutal killing.”
According to prosecutors, Morse spent $180,000 of Bellittieri’s money between July 2012, when the shooting occurred, and Aug. 1, 2013, when Morse was arrested in connection with Bellittieri’s death.
The killing came to light in July 2013 after Morse was arrested in Bar Harbor on suspicion of drunken driving and was found to be in possession of Bellittieri’s credit cards, birth certificate, driver’s license and other items. Police then tried to find Bellittieri and, a few weeks later, found his decomposed body buried under a pile of potting soil in the woods of the Goose Cove Road property.
Morse, who called himself “Bill Tool” and “Hundred Dollar Bill,” drew attention to himself after killing Bellittieri by often leaving $100 tips for waitresses and bartenders as he circulated among bars in Bar Harbor and elsewhere on Mount Desert Island. He also passed himself off as Bellittieri and even rented out a house Bellittieri owned in the MDI village of Hall Quarry.
After six days of testimony in the trial — during which no evidence was presented to the jury about exactly when or where Bellitieri was shot or about the specific circumstances of his final moments — it took jurors only 90 minutes to find Morse guilty of murder.
Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber told Anderson Thursday that the state felt Morse should serve at least 50 to 55 years in prison for the “brazen and cavalier” crime. During his comments to the judge, the prosecutor held up a selfie photo that he said Morse took while he was temporarily evading police as they moved in to arrest him for Bellittieri’s murder on Aug. 1, 2013.
As police waited outside a home where Morse had been staying in Dedham, Morse snuck out the back door and hiked through the woods to G&M Variety Market on Route 1A in Holden, where he bought himself a can of beer. He then texted the photo, which shows him smiling and holding up the Budweiser, to his defense attorney, Jeffrey Toothaker, who at the time was representing him only on a charge of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of intoxicants.
Morse had called a friend who drove to the market and picked him up, not knowing police were trying to arrest Morse. A few minutes later, police stopped the vehicle in Ellsworth and took Morse into custody.
Macomber told Anderson that the photo captures Morse’s lack of remorse for killing Bellittieri in cold blood and then stealing his victim’s life savings.
“This photo is emblematic of how Morse has treated this whole case,” the prosecutor said. “He knew the jig was up.”
Several people who had known Bellittieri — a native of Long Island, New York, who was divorced and had no children — submitted written statements to the court for Anderson to consider in sentencing Morse.
Robert Dillon, a lifelong friend of Bellittieri’s who lives in Denver, traveled to Ellsworth to speak at the court proceeding. He said Bellittieri, a trained accountant, was frugal but a hard worker who saved his money. Bellittieri stayed in good physical shape by ballroom dancing, hiking and camping outdoors, he added.
“We all thought he would live to be 100 [years old],” Dillon said. “Rick was friendly and trusting to the point of being naive.”
Dillon said he had changed and become less trusting of people as a result of Bellittieri’s violent death. He urged the judge not to show leniency on Morse.
“Rick was murdered so some loser could temporarily feel like an important person,” Dillon said. “Please put him away for life with no chance of ever getting out.”
Toothaker and his co-defense counsel, David Bate, told Anderson that they advised their client not to make a statement to the court about having shot Bellittieri in a rage but that Morse insisted on doing so. He said that even if Morse had been given a minimum mandatory term of 25 years, his client probably would not get out of prison alive because of health problems related to his diabetes.
Outside the courthouse, Toothaker told reporters that he was not surprised at the 60-year sentence for Morse, who independent of his attorneys filed more than 200 handwritten motions in the case. He said that despite Morse’s statement at his sentencing, he does think Morse will try to appeal the conviction.
Speaking separately to reporters, Macomber said he thought Morse’s story in court about being urinated on showed disdain for the victim and highlighted Morse’s callous, self-pitying nature.
“It’s really pathetic,” the prosecutor said. “It shows Mr. Morse’s true character, which is someone with no scruples [and] no principles.”
