Thomaston man tells of narrow escape as murder trial opens

BATH – David Smith may have escaped death by the seat of his pants one cold December day in 1999.

But his friend David Brown wasn’t so lucky.

The way prosecutors see it, Malcolm D. Robinson II had already shot Brown three times in Smith’s Thomaston trailer when he turned the gun on Smith and asked him where he’d like to get shot.

When the telephone rang, Smith took it as a cue. He leaped over the bed where Brown lay wounded and dived shoulder first out the window with only his pants and socks on.

“Mac looked right frustrated,” Smith said Monday, while on the witness stand.

The trial of Robinson, 50, of St. George began Monday in Sagadahoc County Superior Court, where the case was moved because of extensive publicity. Robinson is accused of intentional or knowing murder in the shooting death of Brown and criminal threatening with the use of a firearm against Smith.

During opening statements Monday, defense attorney Steven Peterson of Rockport told jurors that the defense was not disputing that his client caused the death of Brown.

“Many of the facts in this case are not in dispute,” Peterson said. “Malcolm Robinson’s state of mind is in dispute.”

Where the state is calling it intentional or knowing murder, the defense would say it was manslaughter, he said.

“The dispute is: What was the state of mind [of Malcolm Robinson] and why?” Peterson said.

After the lawyers’ opening statements, jurors began hearing testimony Monday afternoon.

The day before the Dec. 27, 1999, shooting, Smith and Brown watched a movie, then headed out for a night on the town, according to Smith’s testimony. They went to dinner at the Wayfarer Restaurant, stopped at the Time Out Pub for a few minutes at one point, then spent time at the Navigator Lounge. The men then went back to the Time Out Pub and met up with several other male friends as well as Lynette Robinson, the estranged wife of the defendant.

A group went to Smith’s trailer home at 121 Thomaston St. in Thomaston to play pool.

By 3 a.m. everyone but Brown and Lynette Robinson had left. Smith lay down on the couch and gave them his bedroom.

A rap on the front door about 8 a.m. awakened Smith. He said he hollered for the person to come in. At first, he did not recognize Malcolm Robinson, he said, having met him just once. He later recalled who he was, but did not know he was married to Lynette Robinson or that they may have been trying to reconcile.

Robinson wanted to know where Lynette was, Smith testified.

Robinson knocked on the locked bedroom door and told his wife, “Come on, let’s go,” Smith said. After repeating his demand, she came out and the two exchanged words outside the trailer. A couple of minutes later, she returned inside the trailer and told Smith that her husband was angry. “He’ll get over it,” she said, according to Smith.

Lynette Robinson left and the two men went back to sleep, Smith said.

At 9:30 a.m., Malcolm Robinson was at the trailer door again, this time wanting to know the whereabouts of Brown. Smith told Robinson that Brown was sleeping. Smith testified that he then went to answer a telephone. And while talking to a friend, Smith heard a noise. “I heard the gunshot that I didn’t know was a gunshot,” Smith said.

At that moment, Robinson entered the kitchen, ordered Smith to hang up the phone and enter the bedroom.

That was when Smith saw his longtime friend lying on the bed with a hole in his chest and his head was moving back and forth with his eyes shut, he said.

According to Smith’s testimony, Robinson said to Brown, “How’d you like that one? Want another one?”

Robinson shot Brown two more times.

While begging Robinson not to shoot him, Smith said, Robinson told him that they were messing up his life and that he was going to go to jail for the rest of his life anyway for shooting Brown, so that he might as well shoot him.

Robinson turned the .357-caliber handgun toward Smith, asking him where he would like to be shot. The telephone rang again and Robinson went to answer it. That was when Smith escaped to a neighbor’s house.