In a quiet lakeside home on Transalpine Road in Lincoln, Maine, the life of 63-year-old Pauline Taylor, a White female, came to a tragic end on August 19, 2020. She was fatally shot in her own residence, a place she had purchased in 2017. The events of that day unfolded after what was described as an afternoon of heavy drinking and escalating arguments between Taylor and her 44-year-old son, Adam Groves.
Groves, along with his teenage son, had been living with his mother for only three weeks following his divorce.
The disagreements on that fatal day reportedly revolved around Groves's unemployment, the state of the house, his eating her food, and his excessive drinking. The verbal sparring intensified until it took a dangerous turn. According to a friend who was present, Taylor, upset with her son's drinking, picked up a. 22-caliber rifle and followed Groves to the bathroom, striking the door with the barrel of the gun. After this confrontation, she set the rifle down and returned to her chair.
In response, Groves went outside to his car and retrieved a 9mm handgun from the glovebox. He came back into the house and fired at his mother, killing her as she sat in her chair. Police later found her with at least two gunshot wounds to her face. Shortly after the shooting, at about 8 p.m., Groves himself called 911 to report what he had done. When Lincoln police arrived, they found him outside, still on the phone with a dispatcher, repeatedly stating, "I shot my mom, my life is over."
Adam Groves was arrested at the scene and subsequently charged with murder. Initially, he pleaded not guilty. However, he later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. In court, he expressed remorse for his actions. Groves was sentenced to 24 years in prison for the killing of his mother. As part of his sentence, he was also ordered to serve four years of probation and pay restitution to the victim's compensation fund.
