Overview
- A judge in Androscoggin County ordered 55 years in prison for Joseph Chute on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, and called him a serious risk to the public.
- The sentencing included restitution of $5,000 to the state Victims' Compensation Program and $7,234 to the Maine Warden Service.
- A jury convicted Chute in March after a weeklong trial that featured testimony about alleged confessions to a girlfriend and a friend and a motive that Jackson would repossess a tractor.
- Investigators found Alex Jackson’s body on April 19, 2024, in a barrel dumped in Stark, New Hampshire, and court records say he died from a gunshot wound to the head.
- The defense pointed to Chute’s military history, sobriety and prison church attendance as mitigation while prosecutors had sought 70 years and urged the court to protect the community.