Woman says accused son needs help

When Jean Newton read in the local newspaper that her 19-year-old son -- arrested Monday and charged with a string of Westborough break-ins -- said he was homeless, it made her feel ill.

''That's so incredibly wrong," she said. ''He isn't homeless, and he doesn't have nothing."

The Westborough mother of nine said her son Jesse walked out of their Summer Street home in December, and she's been talking to police and trying to coax him to return ever since.

''I would never kick my child out of the house," she said. ''He walked out the door, and he chose not to come home. Jesse, unfortunately, is very lost at the moment. It's just very sad, and I want to get him help.

''We've had nine kids, and we've never experienced anything like this before. Ed and I set a really good example around here -- we don't do anything that we don't want our kids to do."

Police arrested Jesse Newton inside an East Main Street house on Monday, after responding to a tip that a man was seen going through a window.

He confessed to 11 break-ins, committed on Maynard, Cross, Central, Beach, Pine, Green, and East Main streets over the last month, according to Police Chief Alan Gordon.

He was arraigned Tuesday and is being held on $20,000 cash bail. Charges against him include breaking and entering, larceny over $250, larceny of firearms, malicious destruction of property, and breaking and entering into a depository.

At the time of his arrest, he was carrying a backpack that contained some of the stolen items, including cash, silver dollars, an expensive watch, and collectible baseball cards.

He led police to a wooded area where he had hidden two semiautomatic handguns stolen from a safe in a Central Street home the previous week, according to Gordon.

''Our main concern was getting the firearms off the street, and they were recovered," the chief said.

Jean Newton hasn't been able to talk to her son since his arrest. He is being held at Worcester County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston, where a lockdown that started last Sunday prohibits visits with inmates. She was able to pass along a pocket Bible to her son through a court-appointed lawyer. The Bible lists passages to read in times of trouble.

''I put a note in there from me telling him how much I love him," said Jean Newton, a Christian education director at a Congregational church in Westborough. ''Jesse is a good soul, and we just want to get him back to where he was. I'd like to get him therapy and get him help."

Jesse Newton is one of nine children raised by Jean Newton and her husband, Ed, Westborough's postmaster and Planning Board chairman. Five of the youngsters came to the family as foster children, including Jesse, who moved in with the Newtons when he was 4 years old and has since been legally adopted.

Jesse Newton had a ''good Christian upbringing," according to Jean Newton, and never had any run-ins with the police.

But Jean Newton said the last 1½ years have been tough for him. She said that after he turned 18 he took on an ''I can do what I want" attitude with his parents.

''Around then was the turning point," she said. ''He was doing dumb things, and taking things that didn't belong to him. He seemed depressed."

She said her son, who graduated from Westborough High School last year, refused to follow his parents' rules. He blew off his curfew, sometimes arriving home at 3 or 4 in the morning, and then lied to his parents about where he was and who he was with.

''He'd come home smelling like pot," said Jean Newton, who didn't like the crowd with whom her son ran. ''Every time we would try to help him, he would just lie his way through it."

His marijuana use got him in trouble after three weeks at Marine Corps boot camp this past October. Jesse Newton was drug-tested, according to his mother, and was given the choice to leave or remain in the military and face the consequences. He returned home, but a week after Ed Newton's mother died in December, Jesse Newton walked out.

''We didn't even have time to grieve," Jean Newton said.

Chief Gordon acknowledged that Jean Newton had been talking to him on a regular basis in an attempt to help her son.

After receiving a call from police in January that Jesse Newton was seen walking the streets with a blanket wrapped around him, she got in her car and started searching for him, but to no avail.

''They're a good family," Gordon said. ''The parents have taken in many foster kids over the years, and they've done so many good things for people. What took place certainly is not reflective of who they are as parents or the type of people that they are."

Jesse Newton's arrest should serve as a warning about the dangers of marijuana and other drugs, according to Gordon.

''They get that feeling, and they use it as an escape from the reality of their problems," he said.

Jesse Newton told police that he got a ''high" from stealing, according to Gordon.

''He felt he had nothing, and by obtaining things that other people owned, he now had something," Gordon said.

Gordon couldn't speculate on how the court system would deal with Jesse Newton.

''He certainly owes a debt to society for what he's done," he said. ''These are serious crimes. We've got a lot of victims here, and these people are traumatized."

A pretrial hearing is set for April 6. Joseph Shields, Newton's court-appointed attorney, had only met once with his client at the arraignment, and had no comment.