SKOWHEGAN – The jury-waived trial of a Canaan man accused of murdering his girlfriend nearly two years ago has been postponed for three weeks.
Shannon Atwood, 38, was scheduled to go on trial Tuesday.
He is accused of killing his girlfriend, Cheryl Murdoch, 37, in July 2006, and he was originally indicted in the killing of his wife, Shirley Moon-Atwood, 35, who was last seen in March 2006 and remains missing. The indictment for his wife’s death was later dismissed.
According to paperwork filed at Somerset County Superior Court, the trial was delayed based on a motion by Atwood’s lawyers, John Alsop and Arnold Clark, who needed more time to examine the evidence.
It does not mean there is any new evidence, Alsop said Friday afternoon. He said his office has been inundated with evidence provided by the Attorney General’s Office.
“There are 1,000 pages of crime lab evidence, 25 audio tapes and other assorted DVDs and tapes,” Alsop said. “We just needed to take some more time to go over it all.”
Maine Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson, who is prosecuting Atwood, could not be reached Friday. The trial has now been moved to June 23.
Murdoch’s bludgeoned body was found in the woods of Canaan in August 2006, several miles from a mobile home that all three people had lived in at one time or another.
The murder indictment involving Moon-Atwood was later dismissed but can be brought against him at any point.
During the investigation into Murdoch’s murder, investigators discovered Moon-Atwood’s driver’s license, wedding band, wallet and glasses in a garbage bag at the Atwood home.
Justice Nancy Mills ruled in April that Alsop and Clark may introduce evidence to try to show that Moon-Atwood may have killed Murdoch and that Atwood is covering for her, a so-called “alternative suspect theory.”
Alsop has consistently put forth a theory that Moon-Atwood could have flown into a jealous rage and killed Murdoch.
Mills also ruled that Benson will not be allowed to say that Atwood may have killed Moon-Atwood, noting it would be “highly prejudicial” for the state to claim that the fact that Atwood’s wife is missing means he killed her.
Unable to raise the $200,000 bail, Atwood has been held at Somerset County Jail in Skowhegan since his arrest in August 2006.
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