Prosecution witnesses to begin testimony in murder trial

AUBURN – Testimony resumed Wednesday in the murder trial of a Sabattus man who is charged in the August 2005 death of his former girlfriend, who was shot in the back of the head during a late-night visit to check on the couple’s 2-year-old daughter.

The state’s prosecutor Assistant Attorney General William Stokes said in an opening statement before testimony got under way that Melissa Mendoza unwisely came to Daniel Roberts’ house shortly after 1 a.m. Aug. 15, 2005, to check on the welfare of the child.

Mendoza, 29, had barely stepped into the garage before she was shot in the back of the head with a .38-caliber revolver, Stokes told the jury in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Tuesday.

Stokes said Mendoza, who had been locked in a bitter custody dispute with Roberts, feared him and was angry at Roberts for accusing her of stealing money from his home.

Roberts’ attorney, Leonard Sharon, gave a different version of events when he addressed jurors. Sharon said Mendoza was out of control when she showed up at his house drunk and high on Valium. She pointed a gun at Roberts and said she was going to kill him, their daughter and herself, he said.

“This is a woman who was losing the custody battle, this is a woman who was going there for no good reason,” Sharon said. “The freight train was out of control.”

At the time, the child, Savanna Marie Roberts, was asleep on a bed in Roberts’ home.

Sharon said Mendoza went to Roberts’ house even though she had a court order against him that barred Roberts from having contact with her. He said Mendoza called Roberts on the phone 43 times in the hours before her death.

Jurors visited the shooting scene on Tuesday.

The trial, which is being held under tight security, is expected to continue for another two weeks.