ELLSWORTH – Tad Howard was the victim of a “literal execution” carried out by John J. Turner, a Bangor man who owed him significant drug debts, a prosecutor argued on Monday.

But Turner and Howard were not the only two people at the scene of Howard’s death last summer on a rural road in Amherst, according to a defense attorney.

So began the murder trial of Turner, 35, who is charged with shooting Howard three times last July, including once in the head. Howard, 27, was originally from Ellsworth.

The trial in Hancock County Superior Court will resume today and is expected to last at least until Thursday before Justice Kevin Cuddy turns the evidence over to jurors, who will decide Turner’s fate.

Monday morning featured opening statements from Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson and Jeffrey Toothaker, a local attorney representing Turner.

Benson spoke first and painted jurors a vivid picture of the murder scene, a dirt subdivision road off Route 9 in Amherst. It was there, the prosecutor said, that Turner fired at least three rounds from a shotgun at Howard and then dragged the man’s body into a nearby ditch.

“I hate to speak ill of the dead, but [Howard] was a drug dealer and Mr. Turner was a client who had built a significant drug debt,” Benson said.

Toothaker began his defense by stating flatly that the state did not have enough evidence to convict Turner. He further reminded jurors that physical evidence was subject to interpretation and he said evidence would show that a third person was at the murder scene on the night of July 8, 2007.

Turner, for his part, sat quietly during the first day of his trial, occasionally fidgeting with his hands. He wore a striped white polo shirt, black pants and white shoes.

Turner has been at Hancock County Jail since his arrest in mid-July.

If convicted, he could face 25 years to life in prison.

A number of spectators filled the courtroom, including Howard’s parents, who watched intently as the horrific details of their son’s killing were explained to the jury.

After opening statements, Benson began his prosecution by calling Kenneth Hand to the witness stand. Hand was mowing grass on the side of a dirt subdivision road last July 9 when he made the grim discovery of Howard’s body. The man told the jurors that, shortly after the discovery, he called his boss, who in turn called police.

The state’s next witness, Detective Jay Pelletier of the Maine State Police, was among the first to arrive at the murder scene and was in charge of collecting evidence, he told the court.

Pelletier described the scene: red-and-brown stains on rocks that he surmised was blood, a number of areas that contained “biological material” and others that showed brain matter. And, of course, Howard’s body, which had suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the arm, chest, back and head, he testified.

The detective said he and others gathered evidence at the scene, which included waddings that are associated with shotgun shells, and cigarette butts.

During cross-examination, Toothaker asked Pelletier to confirm that at least one cigarette butt found at the scene contained a woman’s DNA. Pelletier said that was true, but on redirect by Benson, the detective agreed that those cigarette butts may or may not have had anything to do with the crime scene.

Substantial testimony came early Monday afternoon by Dr. Marguerite Dewitt, deputy chief medical examiner for the state of Maine. Dewitt conducted Howard’s autopsy on July 10, two days after his death.

Dewitt focused mainly on the gunshot wounds suffered by Howard: one to the arm and upper chest, the second to his back near the right shoulder and the third, which literally tore off part of the young man’s skull. She said any of the shots could have been fatal, but it was the gunshot to the head – which she believed was the final of the three – that ultimately killed Howard.

Throughout the opening day, Toothaker continuously brought up claims of a third person at the murder scene, although he never identified that person. The defense attorney also went to great lengths to point out that no physical evidence linked Turner to the murder scene and a murder weapon still has not been recovered.

A second state police detective, Darryl Peary, was called to testify Monday, and Toothaker spent several minutes trying to get Peary to confirm that a third person was at the scene.

Peary said only that it was possible.

Benson also called Sandra Newman, Turner’s mother, and Patti McCluskey, his sister, to testify about his state of mind during the days leading up to and after Howard’s killing.

Newman confirmed that her son borrowed her van the night of the killing and was late returning it. She further testified that he became sick the next day when he saw television coverage of a mysterious death in Amherst and asked to go to the hospital.

McCluskey, who went to the hospital, testified that she was angry with her brother and wanted to know what was going on.

“He was crying real bad and he finally said, ‘I think I hurt someone,'” she told the court. “I said ‘how bad?’ He said ‘real bad.'”

erussell@bangordailynews.net

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