AUGUSTA — A Waterville man accused of shooting and killing a Winslow man intervening in a fistfight after a party pleaded guilty to manslaughter Wednesday.

Tyler Quirion, 21, was initially charged with murder in the Feb. 19, 2024, shooting death of Justin Iraola, 22, in Waterville, as well as charges of manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

Quirion pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta, with the murder and possession of a firearm charges dismissed in a plea deal reached with state prosecutors.

He was not sentenced Wednesday. He will return to court to be sentenced, with a date to be set within 60 days, Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy said.

The manslaughter charge is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

Quirion will be held without bail until sentencing.

Quirion previously denied the charges of murder, manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, pleading not guilty in October.

Prosecutor Leanne Robbin, an assistant attorney general, said Quirion was at a Waterville woman’s home partying with a group of other young people. She said there was drinking, smoking of marijuana, and use of cocaine, which she said Quirion brought to the party.

Witnesses said Quirion was carrying his 9 mm handgun in his waistband, displaying it occasionally at the party, including showing its green laser aiming device. The woman who lived at the home told Quirion to leave the party around 6 a.m. after he was reported to be drunk, stumbling, and dropping things.

Tyler Quirion pleaded guilty to manslaughter during a hearing Wednesday at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Quirion, Robbin said, challenged Justin and Frankie Iraola, Justin’s brother, to come outside and said he’d use the gun if he had to, and walked off. He left the party but returned and confronted the woman who lived there. She pushed him, Robbin said, and Frankie Iraola got into a fistfight with him, which started in the driveway and spilled out into the street.

Maine State Police Detective Sgt. Mark Ferreira previously testified that Justin Iraola became involved in the altercation as well. The three were engaged in a struggle when Quinn fired three gunshots, striking and killing Justin Iraola.

Quirion then fled the scene on foot, and was later apprehended by a Maine State Police tactical team, which used a dog to track him to a Waterville boat launch, where he was found in a tree hanging over the Kennebec River. He told an officer at the time that he had shot a gun and then was being chased by people from the party who had a gun.

Quirion had declined to talk to police in the several months since the shooting, Ferreira said.

Justin Andrus and Andrew Wright, two of three attorneys assigned to defend Quirion, said during a previous court hearing that Quirion was acting in self defense when he was being attacked by two men. He argued the state may have had probable cause to charge Quirion with manslaughter, but not murder.

Wright said Wednesday Quirion is a bright young man who considered his options of either pleading guilty to manslaughter or going to trial on murder and manslaughter charges, and “came to the conclusion this was the best way forward.”

Quirion was arrested Sept. 20, 2024 and was charged with the Feb. 19, 2024 murder of  Iraola outside a duplex home on South Grove Street in Waterville. A Kennebec County grand jury indicted him Sept. 19 on charges of murder, manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

Iraola lived in Winslow at the time of his death.

An autopsy conducted by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner on the day of the shooting determined the cause and manner of Iraola’s death to be multiple gunshot wounds and homicide.

The indictment alleges Quirion used a Taurus 9 mm pistol to commit the crime.

The possession of a firearm by a prohibited person charge, now dismissed, alleges Quirion was prohibited from possessing a firearm as an unlawful user or addict to a controlled substance, the indictment said.

Quirion faced 25 years to life in prison, without parole, on the now-dismissed murder charge.