AUBURN — When William True awoke at the county jail Wednesday morning, he stood accused of the crime of hindering apprehension, a felony that could get him 10 years in prison, at the worst.

By the end of the day, things had gotten more serious for the Lewiston man: A grand jury had handed up an indictment charging True with murder and conspiracy. Once accused of helping to cover up the killing of Romeo Parent of Lewiston, True is now charged with participating in the grisly slaying of the 20-year-old in April 2013.

Prosecutors say new information prompted them to pursue the more serious charges against True. If convicted, he would face up to life in prison.

The indictment was not a complete surprise. Last week, True’s attorney, James Howaniec, said he had been told new charges might be forthcoming. He also said that True adamantly denied participating in the killing of Parent.

“We think this very late indictment is unfortunate and unfair and based on some very tenuous evidence,” Howaniec said.

But prosecutors in the case say information shows that True and others accused in the killing acted knowingly when they killed Parent, luring him to a remote location in Greene for that purpose.

According to the indictment: “Once in the town of Greene, Michael McNaughton and/or William True did walk with Romeo Parent into a wooded area (and) caused the death of Romeo Parent, leaving his body in the wooded area while Nathan Morton waited in his vehicle.”

Two weeks ago, Morton, 25, of Greene agreed to plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit intentional murder and hindering apprehension in exchange for a sentence of 20 years in prison, with half of that time suspended. Since that plea, Morton has provided investigators with additional information implicating True in Parent’s murder, Howaniec said.

In an affidavit, Maine State Police Detective Randall Keaton wrote that Auburn police were notified on April 10, 2013, by Eric Leighton that his friend, True, “may have killed their mutual friend,” Parent. Two local police officers went to Leighton’s apartment and interviewed him. Leighton told them that True had just climbed up the back fire escape to Leighton’s apartment asking if he had a large duffel bag. Leighton gave True two large trash bags, and asked why True needed the bags.

True “broke down and became very emotional, claiming that he had killed” Parent, Leighton said. “True went on to tell Leighton that if he called the police, True would kill him, too.”

Leighton also told police that True “appeared to be abnormally clean, describing his prior appearance to always be dirty and unclean,” Keaton wrote in his affidavit.

Leighton told police that, in addition to wearing clean clothes, “True had shaved his head.”

During a later interview with a local police detective, Leighton said True and Parent had been charged in a burglary. Parent had apparently confessed to police during an interview, implicating True. Parent had received a summons and True had been arrested, Leighton said. Leighton told police that True was “looking to hurt Parent and ‘kick his ass’ for implicating him.”

True’s girlfriend, Felicia Cadman, told police that True had told her that McNaughton, a good friend of True, had “taken care of Romeo.”

Morton told police in a later interview that McNaughton and True had asked him to return to the woods in Greene where Morton said he had driven McNaughton and Parent to “take care of” Parent’s body.

A week later, police interviewed a woman, Crystal Dodson, a neighbor to Charles Epps, who lived in a condemned building on Blake Street. Witnesses said Epps had supplied several men with sheets with which to wrap Parent’s body before dumping it in a stream in Monmouth.

Dodson said she could hear True and McNaughton yelling that Parent “was a snitch and needed to be beat down.” She said she could recognize their voices.

True is expected to be arraigned on the new charges later in the week.

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