Witnesses recall day man was killed

BANGOR – The man and woman who lived upstairs from the apartment where a Carmel man was slain 21 months ago testified Tuesday in Penobscot County Superior Court that the night Michael Demmons died they heard a rhythmic banging that went on for at least two hours.

Amber McKenney and Neil Richards, both of Bangor, said that Richards went downstairs twice on the evening of June 25, 2006, to ask the woman who lived there to turn down her music and keep down the noise. Although Maria Santos, 46, eventually turned down her music, the banging continued, Richards said.

Peter Tuller, 35, of Bangor is charged with murdering Demmons, 47, of Carmel in the spare bedroom of Santos’ apartment.

Dr. Margaret Greenwald, the state medical examiner, testified Monday that Demmons was beaten so badly that he suffered 10 to 12 skull fractures. She also said most of his ribs were broken when police found his bloodied body hogtied with an extension cord and plastic bags over his head about 11 p.m.

Richards testified Tuesday that he arrived home from work about 4:30 p.m. that day and saw Santos “sitting on the back steps with a drink in her hand.” He said he also saw Demmons, who had been living with the woman for about a month, but did not see anyone else.

Richards told the jury that at about 6:30 p.m., he and McKenney, who no longer live together, tried to watch a movie but could not hear the sound because Santos’ music was so loud. Richards testified that when he went downstairs to ask her to turn the volume down, Santos swore, shouted at him and threatened to call the landlord. An hour or two later the pounding began, he said.

“I heard this banging that sounded like they were taking a broom to the roof of their apartment and it was coming through our floor,” he said. “I just thought the thumping was because they were trying to agitate us because we complained.”

Richards testified that when he tried to go to sleep about 10 p.m., the banging was still going on. He said that he fell asleep about an hour later when the noise finally stopped. The police woke him and McKenney up at about 12:30 a.m. to tell them a man had been murdered downstairs.

On the stand Tuesday, Santos’ daughter, Ashley LeMay, 21, of Veazie described Demmons and her mother as best friends. LeMay testified that she, her boyfriend and a girlfriend arrived at her mother’s apartment about 10 a.m. the day of the slaying. LeMay said she saw Demmons but not Tuller.

With the jury out of the courtroom, LeMay described Tuller as her mother’s former boyfriend and said they broke up six or seven years ago. She said that when they dated, Tuller threatened Demmons and made rude comments to him.

“He’d say things like ‘You’re going to get yours’ and pushed Mikey around,” she said.

Superior Court Justice Joseph Jabar ruled that LeMay’s memory of events was too vague and her observations about her mother’s relationship with Tuller were made too long ago to be relevant. The jury only heard that LeMay visited her mother and left about 2 p.m., long before the murder happened.

Other witnesses Tuesday included the Bangor Police Department’s blood spatter expert and technicians from the state crime lab. The DNA expert is expected to testify today as the prosecution’s final witness.

Santos is expected to be called as a defense witness today. She told the judge Monday that if asked about her role in Demmons’ death, she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.

The victim’s sister said Tuesday outside the courtroom that she was finding it more and more difficult to sit through the trial, especially during the cross-examination of witnesses.

Laurie Stevenson, 42, of Brunswick took issue with defense attorney Don Brown’s strategy of painting Santos as a possible suspect in her brother’s death.

“She and my brother had a good friendship,” she said outside the courtroom, “but she had nothing to with his death. They were best friends. She’d never hurt him.”

Stevenson said that the blood found on Santos’ halter top which Brown often referred to got there when Tuller “pushed her with my brother’s blood on his hands.”

A crime lab technician confirmed Tuesday that the blood on the top belonged to Demmons.

Santos, according to court documents, told police that she tried to stop the attack on her friend but was slammed up against a wall by a knife-wielding Tuller.

Stevenson also said Tuller had served time in jail for assaulting her brother.

Tuller was convicted in 2002 of criminal threatening and bail violations, the Bangor Daily News reported in the days following Demmons’ murder. He was sentenced to three years in prison with all but nine months suspended. A year later, Tuller was sentenced to one year in jail on an assault conviction and 27 months in prison on two probation violations with the sentence to be served concurrently. The victims were not named in the articles.

The trial was expected to go to the jury Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning.