PARIS – Oxford Superior Court Judge Thomas E. Humphrey accepted a plea arrangement Monday that sent James Nadeau to prison for 27 years without parole for the murder of Barbara Bassett.

“Earning maximum good time credits,” Humphrey told Nadeau, “you would serve 23 of the 27 years.

“Based on your age and health, this sentence might possibly come close to a life sentence.”

“It’s not enough,” said Susan Cloney, sister of Bassett, after the proceedings.

Nadeau, 59, admitted that he shot Bassett – his former girlfriend and a former Sweden selectman – four times on Aug. 1 at her home on Route 93 in Sweden.

He then drove to his trailer in Norway and holed up there for several hours in a standoff with Maine State Police.

He surrendered without incident after talking with a State Police Tactical Unit negotiator. He was interrogated at the State Police barracks in Gray and has been in the Oxford County Jail since.

The plea bargain arrangement was reached by Nadeau’s attorney Walter Hanstein and Fernand LaRochelle of the Attorney General’s Office.

LaRochelle said after the trial that the Nadeau case was not a case that would bring a life sentence under any circumstances.

“As you look at it, it is a fairly typical as homicides go,” LaRochelle said. “There was no unusual degree of cruelty evident.”

Bassett’s former husband, George Bassett, said he found the sentence lacking.

“(Nadeau) drove from Norway to Sweden with a gun in his car, and they say it wasn’t premeditated?” George Bassett wondered.

No criminal history

Humphrey said in determining a sentence that it was a judge’s responsibility to set a basic component and then consider the positive and negative factors that pertain to the accused as a person.

He said the severity of the case would normally warrant a sentence in the 30- to 35-year range.

Humphrey said Nadeau has no criminal history, save a couple of operating-under-the-influence charges, nothing that showed violence, so he didn’t “live on the wrong side of the law.”

He said that Nadeau had also worked at the same company for 30 years, received the support of his family and took responsibility for the act, sparing the family a trial.

Humphrey said he was also aware that Nadeau had been consuming alcohol at the time of the crime.

In recapping the day of the murder, Humphrey noted that Nadeau admitted several times over the phone to a State Police negotiator that he had killed someone earlier and that he had killed Bassett. He also made similar confessions at the State Police barracks in Gray.

Health and age

Hanstein said after the trial that Nadeau’s health was a key determining factor in setting the time in the plea bargain.

“If he had been 25 and in good health, the sentence would have been longer with these facts,” Hanstein said. “Yes, the health and his age impacted the state decision.”

Hanstein said Nadeau had jaw cancer and other significant health issues but was not able to name them.

Cloney, Vicki Lakeman, Bassett’s daughter, and Scott Helstrom, Bassett’s son, spoke for the family prior to the sentencing.

Cloney wondered where her sister’s rights were the day of the murder. She said Barbara, a mother of five and grandmother to 10 children, was a nonviolent person who was a strong advocate of the abused.

“James Nadeau, I hope you never find peace,” Cloney said. “I will never forgive you and hope someday you have to answer to someone.”

The plea and sentencing ended shortly after 9:30 a.m. and Nadeau was on his way to the Windham Correctional Facility by 1:30 p.m.

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