PARIS – Christian C. Nielsen, the 32-year-old Newry man accused of killing four people over Labor Day weekend last year, said Monday that he planned to plead guilty to charges against him if he is not found incompetent to stand trial.

“I don’t really want to go to trial,” he testified on day two of his competency hearing in Oxford County Superior Court, “so I’d rather enter a guilty plea or be found incompetent.”

Called to the witness stand by the state, he answered questions with short answers, which doctors say is characteristic of him.

Defense attorney Ron Hoffman said after the hearing that he wasn’t sure his client’s statement was a “rational, voluntary decision.” He said he believes Nielsen will say things he thinks people want to hear, and that he is able to press Nielsen into different decisions.

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson quizzed Nielsen on the workings of the judicial system. When asked if he was indifferent to the outcome of the case, Nielsen said he was not and would make decisions on how to plead when he had to.

“There’s not much I can do, really. I’m not a lawyer,” he said.

Nielsen said he hopes to be found incompetent, but believes he is competent.

The hearing is to determine whether he understands the charges against him, understands his condition relative to the charges, and is able to cooperate with his counsel to form a defense. During questioning, Nielsen confirmed he has not initiated communication with Hoffman and didn’t believe it was a problem. “I can participate in it, but I can’t design it,” Nielsen said of his defense.

Dr. Charles Robinson, a forensic psychologist retained by the defense, testified that Nielsen displays an “absence of emotion,” and seemed “indifferent to his plight.”

“Anything of substance is just deferred,” Robinson said of Nielsen’s decision-making process. “You’re dealing with a non-person.”

Robinson said Nielsen shows signs of “simple schizophrenia,” although he doesn’t suffer from delusions or hallucinations.

Ann LeBlanc, director of the State Forensic Service, had previously testified that Nielsen suffers from schizoid personality disorder, a condition marked by difficulty in establishing social relationships and expressing emotion. “To Christian, it’s as if there’s nothing unusual about this,” he said.

Robinson said it was impossible to tell whether Nielsen is unable or unwilling to cooperate with his lawyers, and that an incompetent person may state that they are competent.

According to a state police affidavit, Nielsen admitted he shot and killed four people while living at the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast in Newry and working as a cook in Bethel.

He is accused of shooting, dismembering and burning the body of James Whitehurst, 50, of Batesville, Ark., a guest of the inn, on Sept. 1, 2006. He is also charged with killing the inn’s owner, Julie Bullard, 65, on Sept. 3, 2006 in her bed; her daughter, Selby Bullard, 30, of Bethel, and her friend Cindy Beatson, 43, of Bethel, both on Sept. 4, 2006. All three women’s bodies were dismembered.

The murders were reported Sept. 4, 2006, by Charles Nielsen, Christian’s father, and Lee Graham, his stepmother, when they went to the inn to check on him and found him and the bodies. Nielsen had told his father that morning that he was taking over the inn, the affidavit stated.

Beatson’s husband, mother, sister and mother-in-law were at the hearing, but declined to comment.

Charles Nielsen expressed hope that his son will be found incompetent to stand trial. He also hoped the families of the victims would be able to regain normalcy in their lives.

Justice Robert E. Crowley said he will issue a written decision, hopefully before the end of the week. Nielsen’s trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 9.