Court upholds lifetime imprisonment for Newton man convicted of stabbing cousin 86 times in 1998

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that Nicholas Colton got a fair trial and that he should spend the rest of his life in prison for the 1998 murder of Robert McDonald in a Lincoln parking lot.

Colton had originally intended to just beat McDonald with a baseball bat during a night of drinking at a Newton park, but after he and a pal picked McDonald up and driving to Minute Man National Historical Park in Lincoln, repeatedly stabbed him, both in the car and, after McDonald tried to flee, on the ground. Colton then dragged his body into the woods, where it was discovered by two hikers the next day.

Colton made several arguments to have his verdict tossed, including that a confession in the Newton police station should be thrown out because he was not in full possession of his faculties at the time and that his lifetime confinement would constitute cruel and unusual punishment under both federal and state constitutions due to his "mental instability at the time of the offense."

The state's highest court, however, ruled that Colton was in good enough mental shape to make statements - and to be convicted of first-degree murder - and that the court rulings his lawyers cited on cruel and unusual punishment applied only to minors, and he was 21 at the time of the murder.