A man faces decades in prison after killing one man and injuring another in a 2022 rampage across southern New Hampshire.
Robert Gagnon, 47, was convicted of second-degree murder, attempted murder and three counts of felony theft by taking, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said. Gagnon was sentenced Monday.
Authorities said Gagnon bludgeoned 83-year-old Robert Prest to death with a hatchet in Lyndeborough on Nov. 23, 2022 — the day before Thanksgiving — stealing Prest's gun and his BMW.
Investigators initially believed Prest was shot to death at his Center Road home, but authorities later said his autopsy determined he was killed by blows to the head.
On the same day, Gagnon shot Carlos Quintong, now 46, about 15 miles away in Brookline. He stole another vehicle, a Jeep belonging to a Peterborough resident.
Gagnon was sentenced to 30 years to life for the second-degree murder conviction, prosecutors said Monday. He received a consecutive sentence of 15 to 40 years for the attempted murder conviction, which can be reduced by five years if he completes anger management counselling and avoids any other criminal charges.
He was also sentenced to three-and-a-half to seven years on each of the three theft charges. Those sentences are suspended 10 years from his potential release on the murder and attempted murder convictions.
The shooting in Brookline, about 15 miles south of Lyndeborough, on the Massachusetts border, happened several before Prest's body was found that day, authorities have said. The man was rushed to a hospital from a home on Townsend Hill Road.
Authorities had previously said they believed the two incidents were related but did not elaborate on the connection at all.
