Family Moved to Raise Kids in Safe Town. Then Mom and Dad Were Gunned Down as Kids Watched By Christina Coulter

A Maine man who gunned down a couple in front of their children has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.

On Dec. 4, Marcel LaGrange, 26, received two life sentences plus a 50-year term for killing Brittney Cockrell and Michael Hayter in June 2023 and attempting to kill one of their children, according to WGME, WMTW and News Center Maine.

Cockrell and Hayter had recently moved from Houston, Texas, to Maine because they felt Houston was too dangerous and wanted to raise their children in a safer place, WGME reported. Just weeks later, the children watched their parents being shot in downtown Westbrook.

Prosecutors said LaGrange shot and killed the couple after being rejected by a woman. He “stated that multiple people would die because of what she was doing,” Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Ackerman told the court. Ackerman said LaGrange laid in wait to kill someone on the night of June 19, 2023.

The couple’s two children “were present in the car when their father was executed in the front seat,” Ackerman said. “They saw their mother being chased by the defendant with a gun in his hand.”

The children’s grandfather read a letter in court from his grandson, who noted “there was just enough time” for the kids to “duck,” Jeff McKinney said.

Bystander Aaron Bean also described what he saw. “Brittney’s screaming rings in my ear,” Bean said. “Seeing kids reach out for their dead father is heartbreaking.”

LaGrange pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and additional charges including aggravated assault, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, according to the outlets.

“I was not in my right mind that day,” he said in court, per WMTW. “I had stopped taking my medication and was drinking and smoking weed, and not getting the mental health that I needed.”

LaGrange has been held in the intensive mental health unit at Maine State Prison since July 2023 and is expected to remain there under his life sentences, according to News Center Maine.

The victims’ children now live in Texas with their grandparents, who are raising them, per the Portland Press Herald, WMTW and WGME.

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