AUBURN — A 4-year-old girl put feminine hygiene pads on her mother’s face to try to stop the bleeding.

Her mother had been shot in the face.

The girl and her 2-year-old sister had been in the apartment at 49 Fourth St. where their mother and a man had been executed June 19, 2022. The girls had been locked in the apartment with the two bodies for hours when their grandmother had found them.

The man who killed Kelzie Caron, 21, of Auburn and Pierre Langlois, 21, of Meriden, Connecticut, pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional or knowing murder Tuesday in Androscoggin County Superior Court.

David Barnett Androscoggin County Jail

David Barnett, 35, of Bristol, Connecticut, was sentenced to two life sentences to be served at the same time.

A felony charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person was dismissed by prosecutors.

Barnett told police he had come to Maine to sell drugs in the Waterville and Augusta area, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Bogue told the judge Tuesday.

Barnett had met with a man who lived in Sabattus who had been dating Caron and who Barnett had come to believe was threatened by Langlois, Bogue said.

Caron had welcomed Barnett into her Auburn apartment and Langlois had given Barnett his gun “to hold,” Bogue said.

Barnett told police he killed Langlois while he was asleep because Barnett felt Langlois had been a threat to his friend.

The gunshot had awakened Caron, Bogue said. Barnett had later killed Caron because she had been a witness.

Barnett took the cellphones of the two victims, locked Caron’s children in the apartment and fled the scene in Caron’s car.

Investigators found video recordings that included what appeared to be gunshots fired early that morning. They also discovered video footage of a man matching Barnett’s description opening the front door of the apartment early that morning, using the sleeve of his shirt, apparently in an effort not to leave fingerprints.

Barnett’s cellphone was later traced to Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, where Caron’s car had been found abandoned. His fingerprints were found in the car, Bogue said.

He bought a new cellphone at that location whose signal was tracked to Rockville, Maryland, where Barnett was later arrested and extradited back to Maine.

‘A BIG SMILE’

Caron was scheduled to buy a house in July 2022 and was due to graduate from college as an X-ray technician that fall, her mother, Kimberly Caron, told the judge Tuesday.

Kelzie Caron “was an amazing young lady,” her mother said, “a single mom raising two small girls.”

Family members painted a portrait of a warm, generous and determined woman who stood up for others and sought the best for her children.

“She always had a big smile and such a courageous laugh, which was something everyone loved,” her mother said.

They were best friends, so when she hadn’t heard from her daughter that Sunday morning, Father’s Day, Kimberly Caron began to worry. Kelzie Caron was supposed to pick up her mother to show her the new home.

Kimberly Caron drove to her daughter’s apartment, but noticed her car was gone. Something didn’t seem right, so she went into the building and knocked on the apartment door, she said.

She heard footsteps and one of her granddaughter’s asked who was at the door.

“She started to cry. She said, ‘Help. Something is wrong with mommy. She won’t get up. And we can’t get help because the door is locked,'” Kimberly Caron said Tuesday.

The girl said she couldn’t find her mother’s car keys nor her cellphone. She said her mother had a friend at the apartment. Caron told the girl to get the friend, but the girl said: “I think he’s dead,” Caron said.

“This was a very evil selfish act,” Caron said. “How can someone do such a thing knowing two little girls are going to wake up seeing their mommy full of blood and another human being on the bed the same way?”

Caron said her granddaughters asked: “Who would have ever hurt their mommy?” She was the best one in the world. They cried for her morning, noon and night.

“They will require counseling for a long time to come,” she said.

David Caron, Kelzie’s father, said he watches his younger grandchild playing Barbies. She lays out one of the dolls on the floor. The other doll, with outstretched arms, shakes the inert doll, saying, “Wake up Mommy!”

Caron said he wakes up at 2:30 a.m. every day “with pictures of my daughter’s bloody face.”

Caron said Barnett will be housed and fed for the rest of his life at the state’s expense while some military veterans must sleep on the street.

“I really hope his life in prison is very short and, quite frankly, he doesn’t deserve to live,” Caron said.

Sofia Moreno, Langlois’ girlfriend, said they had been together for about five years when he was killed. “We instantly clicked and it was like love at first sight,” she said.

Her now 6-year-old daughter had come to regard Langlois as a father figure, having taught her how to swim and ride a bicycle. His death caused mother and daughter lingering trauma, her daughter wanting to go to heaven to be with “her Daddy.” Moreno said she sometimes sleeps at the cemetery where he was buried to be near him.

She has his name tattooed on her chest over her heart, Moreno said.

Rhea Highsmith, Langlois’ mother, said Barnett “decided to play God and murder my baby boy.”

She called Barnett’s actions “cowardly.”

Highsmith said, “I can only imagine that this individual feels like a big man now … What on God’s green earth would make you murder my sweet baby?”

David Barnett addresses the families of his victims Tuesday as his lawyer, Stephen Smith, stares ahead at the judge at the Androscoggin County Superior Court in Auburn. Barnett told the families that he was not asking for their forgiveness but that the hatred they felt towards him for murdering the Edward Little graduate and her guest, was not going to affect him, but it would live inside of them. Barnett pleaded guilty to both 2022 murders. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

When asked by Justice Harold Stewart II whether he wanted to say anything, Barnett stood, turned and faced the gallery of the victims’ friends and relatives.

“I’m not proud of what happened,” he said.

He said the reason he “took Pierre’s life” was that his friend’s life was threatened.

“I take that seriously, the way that I grew up,” Barnett said.

“It’s unfortunate that Kelzie witnessed what happened,” he said.

Barnett said he also believed in God, though that might be hard for the victims to understand. He said he wasn’t asking for forgiveness. He cautioned the victims against having “a hatred in your hearts for the rest of your lives” because that would affect the victims more than it would Barnett.

When he suggested that his two victims had been “living the same lifestyle as me,” several people in the gallery responded, prompting Justice Stewart to call for a recess.

Stewart said that several factors involved in the murders elevated the sentence to life terms, including multiple victims and in presence of children.