ELLSWORTH – More than 120 potential jurors lined the benches inside the Hancock County Superior Court early Thursday morning. By lunch, that number had been whittled down substantially by Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson and defense attorney Jeffrey Toothaker. By early afternoon, only a dozen jurors, plus alternates, were left.

Those remaining few will be tasked to hear testimony and ultimately decide the fate of the accused in Hancock County’s first murder trial in more than five years.

At the center of the trial, which will begin at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 5, is John J. Turner, 35, of Bangor. Turner is accused of shooting and killing Tad Howard, 27, of Ellsworth last summer in a dispute over drug debts.

Howard’s body was found in a ditch in the northern Hancock County town of Amherst on July 9. After a brief investigation, Turner was arrested about a week later at a hospital in Bangor and charged with murder. He has spent the last nine months at Hancock County Jail.

Toothaker declined Thursday to give any details about his defense strategy or who he plans to call for witnesses, but he predicted that a lot more information surrounding the case will come to light.

“There’s going to be a lot of evidence, DNA, fingerprints, all that good stuff,” he said. “It should be interesting.”

Benson did not return a call Thursday for comment, but earlier this year he told the Bangor Daily News that he felt confident about the evidence connecting Turner to the crime.

Toothaker did reveal that the state’s witness list has 23 names, many of whom are detectives and employees at the Maine State Police forensics crime lab in Augusta.

The trial is expected to last at least three days and possibly could be decided by Thursday, according to Toothaker. If convicted, Turner could face 25 years to life in prison.

Superior Court Justice Kevin Cuddy, who was appointed to the bench last year, will be presiding over the first murder trial of his judicial career.

The last murder trial in Hancock County to go before a jury was in November 2002, when Edwin Graham was charged in the brutal stabbing and beating death of Zachary Savoy.

In another recent case, Michelle Mills, 38, of Southwest Harbor was scheduled for trial late last year for the murder of Jacqueline Evans, 83, in February 2006. Mills committed suicide in September while being held at Penobscot County Jail.

erussell@bangordailynews.net

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