DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — The Abbot man accused of shooting his father to death in May in Parkman and then turning the gun on himself told detectives he got drunk, didn’t take his medication and does not remember the fatal incident, according to an affidavit filed in Piscataquis County Superior Court.
Zachary Grant, 38, is charged with murder in the death of David Grant, 61, on May 12 at the older man’s rural home, and he was indicted by the grand jury at the end of June. He entered a not guilty plea at his arraignment Monday.
Zachary Grant told Maine State Police Detective Thomas Pickering that he does not remember going to his father’s house and that “his memory loss is due to intoxication from alcohol,” according to the court affidavit.
He also allegedly told detectives he had been hearing voices and was on prescribed antidepressant medication that he did not take on the day his father died.
Grant told Pickering “that he heard voices on May 12; that he does not remember what the voices told him to do,” according to the affidavit.
He arrived Monday at court wearing a white plastic medical helmet, similar to the one he wore at his first court appearance in May, and it appeared that Grant’s left eye was completely closed as he stood before Superior Court Justice Robert Mullen.
The arraignment took only a few minutes, and Grant answered the judge’s two questions — what was his plea and if he had any questions — with two short answers: “Not guilty” and “Nope.”
Grant looked around the courtroom just before taking his seat and found his wife seated next to another woman in the back corner of the courtroom.
A man from Abbot stopped by David Grant’s Packard Road home about 10 p.m. May 12 and found Zachary Grant inside the residence injured and bleeding, according to the affidavit.
The visiting man called 911 and said that “Zachary Grant stated to him that he had killed his father, that he did not see Zachary’s father; that Zachary was injured and having difficulty speaking; that Zachary was seated in a chair inside the residence and that he was covered in blood,” according to the affidavit.
Police found David Grant on the ground outside beside his son’s truck, and the state medical examiner’s office determined he died from three gunshot wounds to his head, according to the affidavit. Zachary Grant was found injured from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the face.
The gunshot wound was found under his chin, and the bullet “travelled up behind Zachary’s right eye and into his brain,” one doctor interviewed by Pickering said.
Grant’s attorney, Jeffrey Silverstein, said after court ended Monday that his client seems coherent, and he believes he will be able to stand trial. He added that he had not received the police report and associated documentation and therefore could not comment on the state’s version of the events.
Grant initially went to Mayo Regional Hospital and was taken by LifeFlight helicopter to Eastern Maine Medical Center and later was treated at Acadia Hospital, where he was arrested May 27 upon his release.
Detectives talked to three people — including his wife and his father’s longtime girlfriend — who said they saw Grant drinking on May 12 after he learned that electricity to his home had been shut off.
He allegedly told Pickering that he “felt pissed that the power had been shut off,” and that “it made me [expletive] ugly.” His wife said he was “chugging” beer when he picked her up from work at about 3 p.m. and that three empty beer cans were on the floor of his truck, according to the affidavit.
His father’s girlfriend said Grant had a beer in his hand when he arrived at about 4 p.m. at her house, which is where David Grant lived. She left for work at 4:25 p.m. and at about 5 p.m. tried unsuccessfully to reach her boyfriend and his son.
Zachary Grant’s wife also reported that he had been hearing voices in mid-April “that told him to hurt everyone.”
“She questioned Zachary if the voices told him to hurt her and their children and that Zachary answered, ‘everybody,’” Pickering states.
Grant was prescribed an antidepressant and had not reported hearing voices since, his wife told the state police detective. He told Pickering that he did not take his medication on May 12.
Grant said the last thing he remembers is picking up his wife at work and the next thing he remembers is being in the hospital, according to the affidavit.
Assistant Attorney General John Alsop was in the courtroom on Monday with Pickering. Mullen ordered a status conference for September in Augusta, and he also agreed to hold the bail hearing when requested by Silverstein.
The death of David Grant was the first of two homicides to happen within three weeks in the small town of Parkman, which has a population of about 845 residents. Stephanie Ginn Gebo, 37, a single mother of two, was found dead on June 5 about a mile down the road from where Grant lived. Police say she was shot by her ex-boyfriend, Robert Burton, who has been on the run ever since.
Grant was returned to Piscataquis County Jail after court, where he is being held without bail.