In the summer of 2007, the life of 27-year-old Tad Douglas Howard was cut short in a secluded area in Amherst, Maine. On the night of July 8, Howard, a male, was with a man he considered a friend, John J. Turner. The two were known to be associates in the drug trade. Turner had devised a plan to rob Howard of money he had from their illicit dealings.
Their final journey together led them down a quiet road off Route 9. It was there that Turner's robbery plot escalated to murder.
He shot Howard multiple times with a shotgun, culminating in a final, fatal shot to the head. The act was later described by prosecutors as an "execution-style killing." Howard s body was discovered the following day, sparking an investigation that would untangle the web of their association.
The investigation into Howard's death led authorities to John J. Turner of Bangor. In May 2008, a Hancock County jury found Turner guilty of murder after a three-day trial that laid bare the details of the drug-related slaying. During the trial, the court heard how the motive for the killing was a dispute over drug money.
In July 2008, just over a year after he ended Tad Howard's life, John J. Turner was sentenced to 50 years in prison. At the sentencing, the judge spoke of the finality and brutality of the crime, noting that Howard was not coming back. Howard's family, though hoping for a longer sentence, expressed a sense of closure that the legal process had concluded and that Turner would be behind bars for a substantial period. Howard's father acknowledged his son's recent troubles but emphasized that nothing could ever justify the violent end he met.
