BELFAST – Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the murder trial of Jerome Reynolds II, the Brooks man accused of the shotgun slaying of a female friend of his father a year ago.

Reynolds, 54, has been incarcerated since the Sept. 29, 2004, shooting death of Janet Bacon, 60, of Brooks. He will be tried before Justice Donald H. Marden in Waldo County Superior Court. Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson said he expected the trial to take much of the week.

Bacon was killed by a single blast to the face from a 12-gauge shotgun shortly after she entered Reynolds’ home on Purple Heart Highway. The home is about a half-mile west of the center of Brooks village.

According to an affidavit filed with the case, Reynolds’ 76-year-old father had gone to his son’s to get away from Bacon, whom he had argued with earlier that evening. Bacon apparently became upset after learning that he had been playing cards with other women at the local senior citizens center.

Reynolds and his father were watching a Red Sox game on television when Bacon drove into the yard shortly after 8 p.m. and began blowing the horn repeatedly. The elder Reynolds told police that Bacon forced her way into the home, pushed his son aside and began yelling at him. The younger Reynolds responded by going to a closet for his shotgun, according to the affidavit.

Reynolds told police his son ordered Bacon to “get the hell out of here,” then fired the gun. The buckshot struck Bacon in the head, killing her instantly.

As his father looked on, Reynolds then picked up the telephone, dialed 911, and told the Waldo County Communications Center “he had just shot and killed a woman,” according to the police report. At the time of her death, Bacon was unarmed and wearing slippers and night clothes.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor said he intended to prove that Jerome Reynolds II acted within the law. He said state law permits the use of deadly force when someone trespasses on another person’s property with the intent of committing a crime.

He said Bacon had been assaultive toward the Reynolds family in the past. He said he was convinced that the gunman feared that Bacon intended to assault him or his father on the night of the shooting.

“The evidence establishes that the victim had a history of engaging in trespasslike behavior which was accompanied by combative and assaultive behavior,” Silverstein said Friday. “In light of that history, my client firmly believes that it wasn’t going to be any different that night.”

Silverstein said that under the law the state will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Reynolds acted in a reckless manner when he shot Bacon.

“I feel confident the state will have a difficult time proving that he did not believe that she was assaultive or that his beliefs were reckless,” he said. “Even if Mr. Benson convinces the jury he was reckless, it would be manslaughter under the law, not murder.”

Jury selection will begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 12.