By Philip Elliott
The Associated Press Writer
CONWAY, N.H. — A day after nonchalantly telling reporters he killed three people, a Maine man told a judge on Friday he wasn’t being treated fairly in jail and asked for a new home while waiting trial on New Hampshire murder charges.
 Assistant Attorney General Karen Huntress, joined by Conway Chief of Police Edward Wagner, speaks outside a courthouse in Conway, N.H, following a hearing for Michael Woodbury Friday. (AP Photo/Joel Page) |
“I have realized that most of the officers here are not bad people. They are just scared of me. I understand, but they do not have anything to fear from me at all,” Michael Woodbury wrote in a handwritten note to Judge Pamela Albee. “I feel like some of the staff here is taking it personally that I murdered three of their citizens, I must be transferred.”
Woodbury said guards at the Carroll County jail put him into a dirty cell, gave him a mattress soaked with urine and assigned him to a cell with “human feces all over cell. Fresh.”
The day before, Woodbury, 31, caused a sensation when he spoke to reporters as officers led him to and from a Maine courthouse, saying he shot three men at a Conway outdoors store because they interfered as he robbed the store, then blamed Maine prison officials for releasing him without supervision or help.
He continued to speak his mind Friday in Northern Carroll County District Court while being arraigned on three counts of first degree murder, chiding court security officers, interrupting his lawyer and addressing the judge.
“Hey, slow down bro,” a shackled Woodbury said to officers walking him into the courtroom.
He drew a rebuke from Albee as he fidgeted and craned over his shoulder to look at news cameras and the crowd behind him as she was reading the charges.
“Mr. Woodbury, I’m right here,” Albee said. “You may look at me.”
Family members of some of the victims also were in the courtroom, crying and consoling each other as they saw the accused killer in person for the first time.
According to authorities, Woodbury committed the shootings less than two months after maxing out a five-year Maine State Prison sentence for theft. In the weeks leading to the shootings Monday, authorities said Woodbury embarked on a crime spree through several states that included a bank robbery in South Carolina, burglary and arson in Georgia, car theft in Kentucky and armed robbery in Tennessee.
Woodbury told reporters on Thursday he warned officials he was a threat to re-offend after being released, even writing a four-page manifesto to a prison therapist telling her “about how this (expletive) was going to crack like this.”
Woodbury said prison officials were unresponsive: “They told me, ‘We don’t give a (expletive).’ They were just like, ‘whatever, leave.’”
Maine prison officials say Woodbury had access to mental health and other services while in prison, but their responsibility to him ended with his release because he was not on probation.
Woodbury continued his opinionated streak on Friday as he provided Albee with his letter.
“In my opinion, it’s a little too close to the action. There’s various people there with a personal interest,” Woodbury said as the note was handed over to Albee, who said she would pass it to corrections officials.
A shift supervisor at the Carroll County jail declined to comment on Woodbury’s letter. Jail director Maj. David Jordan was not immediately available on Friday afternoon.
Woodbury also jumped in when his public defender unsuccessfully asked for access to sealed investigation documents -- taking the other side.
“We’ll drop that issue. They win,” Woodbury said aloud.
The shootings Monday at the Army Barracks store took the lives of store manager James Walker, 34, of Denmark, Maine, William Jones, 25, of Walpole, Mass., and Gary Jones, 23, of Halifax, Mass.
Walker left a wife, a 1-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter from a previous marriage. His wife, Tessa Walker, manages an Army Barracks store in Scarborough. The Massachusetts men were not related. They had been hiking and had stopped at the outdoors gear shop on their way home.
“They were fun-loving boys, hardworking boys. They were like brothers. It was just a coincidence their last name was Jones,” said Kenny Jones, William Jones’ father. “We came up here to see the person that did this to our son,” Jones said.
“We are going to miss them dearly,” he added.
Woodbury was arrested Tuesday in Fryeburg, Maine, a few miles from Conway. It was on his way into a fugitive from justice arraignment in South Paris, Maine, that he first spoke to reporters waiting outside.
“Unfortunately, I did,” Woodbury said when asked if he shot the men.
Asked why, Woodbury answered he “needed the money.”
Huntress was less forthcoming to reporters on Friday, declining to comment on nearly all aspects of the ongoing investigation.
Asked whether prosecutors will use Woodbury’s admission against him, she avoided answering directly.
“When we take a case to trial we look at the totality of the evidence,” Huntress said.