Sheldon arrested for husband's murder

Photo: Oxford County Jail

Gayla Sheldon on the day of her arrest for the murder of her estranged husband.

OXFORD COUNTY – Months of rumor and suspicion ended Friday, when Gayla Sheldon, 24, was arrested at her Rumford home – charged with the murders of her estranged husband, Victor Sheldon and a bystander, Roger Day, last summer.

Eric Hamel, 20, and Sheldon's lover, Richard Moulton, 21, confessed within days Aof the double murders and both implicated Sheldon, according to affidavits filed by state police detectives at the time of their arrest. However, for reasons not made clear, Sheldon was not arrested.

She was indicted by the Oxford County Grand Jury, which rose Friday, but her indictment was not made public until after her arrest, a common measure when the indicted is thought to be a flight risk.

After her children were taken into protection by Maine Department of Health and Human Services child protective workers, Sheldon was taken to the Oxford County Jail, in South Paris, pending her initial court appearance next week. She is not eligible for release on bail until then. Neither of the men involved were released on bail after their arrests.

Both Moulton and Hamel entered guilty pleas earlier this year, giving, as a condition of their pleas, that they would testify against other, unnamed, conspirators who were or were not known at the time. This implied, at least one arrest to come, but did not specify Sheldon.

Hamel and Moulton said the reason for the killings was that Sheldon was concerned about her estranged husband's efforts to gain custody of their children. Day, they said, just was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was killed as a result of being a witness.

The target of the killing, Victor Sheldon, was due to make a court appearance the day of the murder. He had been charged with assaulting his wife as a result of her complaint. However, unbeknownst to him or his killers, the case had been withdrawn by the district attorney.