Skowhegan murder trial goes to jurors

SKOWHEGAN – The fate of a construction worker charged with the murder of 16-year-old Cody Green is in the hands of jurors after closing arguments Tuesday.

Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese told the Somerset County jury that all of the evidence points to Olland Reese, 20.

“Folks, Olland Reese is either the unluckiest man alive or the guiltiest,” she said.

Andrews Campbell, Reese’s lawyer, shot back that it’s scary to think a man could be prosecuted with the kind of evidence the state has against his client.

Reese testified Monday that he had nothing to do with the murder of the Brunswick teen and that he regretted giving misleading statements to investigators.

Olland Reese told jurors he did not kill Cody Green last year by hitting the Brunswick teenager in the head with the blunt end of a hatchet.

“Did you ever, ever have anything to do with the disappearance or death of Cody Green?” Campbell asked.

“I most certainly did not,” Reese replied.

Reese’s testimony was the first time the 20-year-old had spoken publicly about the allegations against him. If convicted, he faces a prison term of 25 years to life.

Reese is accused of murdering Green on or around May 26, 2002, the last day she was seen alive. Her body was discovered a month later in a shallow grave behind the Bowdoin home of Reese’s mother, Trudy Bither.

Reese was arrested three days later.

At the time of the killing, Reese and his girlfriend, Kara McGinnis, lived in the house with Bither. Green had come to Bither’s home that weekend to visit McGinnis, witnesses testified.

Reese gave investigators several accounts of what happened the night of May 26. On Monday he said he never saw Green on May 26, though in one account he told police he spoke with Green for about 10 minutes outside Bither’s home before Green left on foot.

“I knew it was the wrong thing to do, but at the time I did not know something tragic had happened to Cody,” Reese said. “After I found out that Cody had been murdered and buried behind my mother’s house I came out with the truth.”

Reese also said he never noticed the bloodstain state police investigators say they found on a wall in his mother’s home.

Campbell tried to convince jurors that police investigators planted the evidence in an attempt to frame Reese for Green’s murder, and is promoting an alternative suspect theory.