Jason Hunnewell, left, sits with defense attorneys Walter McKee, top left, and Kurt Peterson at a bindover hearing April 22 in Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. Hunnewell is charged with two counts of murder. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)

AUGUSTA — The teenager accused of killing two men at the Chelsea home where relatives had taken him in should be tried as an adult, a judge has determined.

Jason Hunnewell, 17, is charged with murder in the deaths of his cousin Christopher Hunnewell, 43, and Christopher Hunnewell’s adopted son, Ty Carter Hunnewell, 22, in June 2025 at the Chelsea home they shared.

Jason Hunnewell allegedly attacked and killed Christopher Hunnewell with a wood-splitting maul and Ty Carter Hunnewell with a hunting knife.

Following a bind-over hearing April 22-24, to determine whether Jason Hunnewell, who was 16 at the time of the killings, will be tried as an adult or juvenile, District Court Judge Charles Dow ruled he will be prosecuted as an adult.

Dow’s ruling noted Hunnewell often seems more like a child than an adult, and has benefited from treatment he’s received while being held at Long Creek Youth Development Center since his arrest. But the judge noted Hunnewell could only be held in the juvenile justice system until he turns 21, and expressed fear that four years would not be enough time to either protect the public from the risk Hunnewell could present, or reflect the seriousness and violence of the crimes he allegedly committed.

“Four years for such sudden, vicious conduct, especially where there remains considerable uncertainty as to Jason’s potential for future violence, strikes the Court as insufficient to safeguard public safety,” Dow wrote in his decision issued in early July. “The question here is not whether Long Creek is beneficial for Jason. It clearly is. The question is whether, after four years of treatment at Long Creek, Jason will be safe to release into community. The Court cannot say that he will be. Public safety concerns regarding Jason therefore strongly favor binding him over to the adult criminal justice system.”

One of Hunnewell’s attorney’s, Walter McKee, said they’ve appealed the decision, in a July 21 filing, to the Maine Supreme Court. He declined additional comment.

The Kennebec Journal has not previously identified Jason Hunnewell by name, because the court had not yet determined whether he would be prosecuted as a juvenile or adult.

Dow noted Hunnewell had a troubled childhood, including being abused by his father, Al Hunnewell, and that his mother, Crystal Marr, who died after Hunnewell was arrested, had a blood alcohol content of .2% when he was born. Marr struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, prompting the state Department of Health and Human Services to take custody of Jason Hunnewell multiple times as he grew up. Dow said Hunnewell’s upbringing was a “disorienting whirlwind of DHHS placements” with 17 different placements over 16 years. And that he “had been betrayed numerous times by those he should have been able to place absolute trust in.”

He also said Hunnewell had mental health problems, including PTSD and ADHD, and could have been developing or experiencing a psychotic disorder, and had a history of huffing inhalants.

Dow said if the circumstances of Hunnewell’s upbringing were different, there is a solid chance that what happened would not have occurred.

“But the fact remains that what happened — a double murder committed with an ax and a knife — happened,” Dow wrote. “The reality of the juvenile system is that Jason would be free to reenter the community in four short years if adjudicated of double murder and kept in the juvenile system. The Court is not persuaded that such a result would be appropriate.”

At the time of the incident the teenager was living with the Hunnewell family through the state’s foster program.

Steven Carey, an attorney who served as a guardian ad litem for the teen, said during the bind-over hearing things went well initially when the teen was placed at Christopher Hunnewell’s home. However, family members told Carey the teen was out of control and not attending school. Following an April 2025 visit, he recommended the state Department of Health and Human Services remove the teen from the home and find a new placement.

The teen was arrested and charged with murder on June 11, 2025, at a Windsor Road home in Chelsea.

Bryce Scott, a state police trooper who was patrolling the area June 11, 2025, said during Hunnewell’s bind-over hearing in April he responded around 8:40 p.m. to a report of an emergency where someone was injured or deceased in Chelsea.

When he arrived, he found the teen, in a black hoodie, pacing back and forth, and handcuffed him without incident. Scott testified the teen was visibly distressed and crying, stating to the trooper that, “Everybody was right about me.” The boy also stated he was a “monster” and asked to be killed, Scott said.

Police said Jason Hunnewell struck and killed Christopher Hunnewell with a maul, then called upstairs for Ty Carter Hunnewell to come down to help with a home repair issue. Then, after he came downstairs, stabbed and killed him with a knife.

The teen is also accused of, after he killed the other two victims, attacking Chili Mulgado, 23, now of Florida, who was Ty Carter Hunnewell’s fiancée and was living with the Hunnewells in June 2025. Mulgado was able to disarm Jason Hunnewell, and call police.

Police also found a journal, in what was believed to be the teenager’s makeshift bedroom, with hand-drawn comic-strip sketches depicting a deadly attack with an ax. Dow said that indicated Jason Hunnewell appeared to have premeditated his attack.