AUBURN – The lawyer for a Sabattus man accused of murdering his father at his 65th birthday party says his client has rejected a plea offer from the prosecution, setting the stage for the case to go to trial in January.

Scott Poirier, 35, is accused of shooting Roland Poirier in the throat with a rifle from outside his father’s Lewiston home on Nov. 8, 2006, while his father was inside with family members and friends. The son later told police he was abused by his father when he was young and that he wanted to protect his own children.

Poirier’s attorney, Steven Peterson of Rockport, said the defense and the prosecution met privately for 21/2 hours Friday with Justice Carl Bradford, an active retired judge of the Maine Superior Court, to see if they could reach common ground on terms to settle the case before it goes to trial.

“There were discussions about numbers” and “ideas were bounced back and forth,” said Peterson, who declined to go into specifics but made it plain that he and Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese never came close to an agreement. “The two sides are pretty far apart,” he said.

The court has set a tentative date of Jan. 14 for the start of jury selection, Peterson said, and the trial is expected to take up to two weeks.

“We’re engaged at this point in preparing for trial,” he added.

The case was scheduled to go to trial in September but was put on hold after Poirier’s previous attorney, Michaela Murphy, was appointed as a Superior Court judge and the trial judge, Justice Ellen Gorman, was elevated to the Supreme Judicial Court.

Justice Joyce Wheeler, who has moved to Androscoggin County to assume Gorman’s former duties, will preside over the trial.