BELFAST, Maine — The man accused of killing three people in Washington County wove Satanism, drug rings, embezzlement and fearing for his life into his testimony Wednesday morning when he took the stand in his own defense during his murder trial.
Thomas Bonfanti, 65, testified that he accidentally shot and killed Jonesboro residents Sam Powers and Jennifer Bryant Flynn at their houses. He also testified that he shot Shawn Currey and Regina Hall Long at their house in Machias when he stopped to talk to Long and his gun fell out of his coat. Currey and Long jumped to grab it and tried to take it away from him, he said.
“‘I’ll kill you!’ is what I heard,” Bonfanti said. “Regina and him are both trying to come at me. I had no choice in the matter.”
Currey died in the shooting but Long survived. Bonfanti has been charged with aggravated attempted murder and elevated aggravated assault for shooting Long.
Bonfanti said Long and Flynn had been repeatedly calling him in the days leading up to the shooting to try to get him to drop his pursuit of Mary Tinker for allegedly embezzling money from the American Legion hall in Machias, where Bonfanti was an officer.
The legion had fired Tinker and hired an auditor to examine its financial records.
Tinker, the legion’s office manager, has since been charged with embezzling more than $10,000 from the legion.
Bonfanti said he had been suicidal because of the pressure he was getting to leave Tinker alone, and that he never set out to shoot anyone.
“I had no intention of hurting anybody except myself that day,” Bonfanti said.
Bonfanti said he suspected that Long and Flynn were involved in selling drugs to Tinker, and that he himself was under pressure to sell some of his prescription painkillers to a relative of Hall’s. He said he thought the relative was taking the pills to treat her hip pain, but found out later she was reselling them after buying them for $2 apiece from Bonfanti.
“I stopped giving her pills after that,” Bonfanti said.
Bonfanti said his gun went off by accident after he showed it to Powers at Powers’ home in Jonesboro, killing Powers instantly. After he shot Powers, he went to Flynn’s house in Machias and confronted her about the unwanted phone calls and accidentally shot her after they began arguing and she began throwing things at him, he said.
The shooting at Long’s house happened after he shot Flynn, he said. After killing Currey and shooting Long, he drove to the Machias Legion hall, where he said he planned to kill himself by overdosing on pain medication.
Bonfanti also testified that Powers collected bones and had an interest in Satan, though Powers never told him he worshiped the devil.
The trial was moved to Belfast from Machias due to concerns that pretrial publicity might make it hard to pick a jury.
Closing arguments are expected to be presented to the jury Wednesday afternoon.
