The trial of a Madison man accused of murdering his former roommate has begun

SKOWHEGAN — The trial of a Madison man accused of killing his former roommate last year will begin this week in Skowhegan.

Roland Flood, 62, is charged with the July 2023 murder of Mark TrabueAccording to court records, 57, Anson.

According to police, Trabue’s body was found with multiple stab wounds on July 8, 2023, in a Madison cemetery.

Potential jurors are expected to report to Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan on Monday. The jury is expected to wrap up the trial on Tuesday.

Chief Justice Robert E. Mullen is expected to preside over the trial, which begins Wednesday and could last into next week.

If Flood is convicted of murder, he faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Court records show Flood was indicted by a Somserset County grand jury in October 2023 on charges of willful, knowing or depraved murder by indifference.

Flood, who pleaded not guilty, was denied bail and has been held in the Somerset County Jail in Madison since his arrest on September 1, 2023.

Court records filed by police and prosecutors show Flood had an argument with Trabue days before the alleged murder. Court records show Flood previously lived at Trabue’s home in Anson.

In a telephone interview Friday, Flood’s court-appointed lawyer maintained that his client was innocent.

“Without revealing too many details, our defense will be that Mr. Flood was not involved in Mr. Trabue’s murder and that we believe one or more other people are responsible.” – Verne E. Paradie Jr. from a Lewiston law firm, Paradie and Rabasco said. “That’s what we hope to show in the trial.”

Paradie declined to provide more details about Flood’s expected defense.

“Mr. Flood has no motive to do this,” Paradie said. “He has no history of violence and is not a violent person.”

“HOW DO YOU WANT TO DIE?”

Trabue’s body was found at Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison on the evening of July 8, 2023, according to an affidavit filed in court in connection with Flood’s arrest warrant prepared by Detective Jillian Monahan of the Maine State Police.

Two callers reported an unconscious man lying in the car, and Somerset County Sheriff’s Office deputies found Trabue dead with injuries to his chest, throat and neck that appeared to be stab wounds, Monahan wrote in the affidavit.

The car is registered on Trabue.

An autopsy performed the next day by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed multiple stab wounds, and Trabue’s death was ruled a homicide.

The statement says that the day before Trabue’s body was found, 61-year-old Susan Viles reported him missing. Viles told police she lived with Trabue and Flood had previously lived with them because she was in a romantic relationship with him.

Viles told police that Trabue had left his home on Ingalls Street in Anson the day before – July 7, 2023 – and did not return until the next morning.

According to prosecutors’ October 2023 letter, Trabue was last seen alive at approximately 3:45 p.m., July 7, 2023, on Main Street in Madison. Around that time, Trabue and Flood made several phone calls, Assistant Attorney General Lisa R. Bogue wrote in the lawsuit, which was related to the bail hearing.

According to Viles’ initial report to police, Flood told Viles that he had seen Trabue with a younger couple that day.

According to Monahan’s affidavit, hours after Trabue’s body was found on July 8, 2023, Viles told detectives that she had broken up with Flood about a month earlier and kicked him out of the Anson residence.

Viles told detectives that on July 6, 2023, two days before Trabue’s body was found, Flood and Trabue had an argument at the Anson residence.

Viles said she and Trabue were watching TV when Flood came in and tried to be alone with Viles, Monahan wrote in the affidavit. Trabue said he wouldn’t leave and asked Flood, “How would you like to be kicked out of my house?”

“How would you like to die?” Viles’ statements to detectives indicate that Flood reacted.

During the same interview, Viles told detectives that she took Flood’s remark about Trabue dating a younger couple as a “tip” because Flood had previously said he knew a couple who could be hired to commit murder, Monahan wrote in the affidavit.

Later that morning, detectives interviewed Flood at the home of Christopher Goodwin, 48, on Madison Avenue in Madison, where Flood was temporarily staying, according to the affidavit. Flood told detectives he saw Trabue on the afternoon of July 7, 2023, when Trabue dropped off his clothes.

Flood said a man and a woman were in the car with Trabue. A man and a woman were recently identified by Skowhegan police in a Facebook post regarding a shoplifting incident, Monahan wrote in a statement. According to the affidavit, the detective later interviewed the woman in the Facebook post, who provided her with an alibi.

In a telephone conversation later that day between Viles and Flood, which detectives heard and recorded, “(Flood) admitted to threatening to kill (Trabue) but indicated it was a joke,” Monahan wrote in the affidavit.

During that phone call, Flood also told Viles that Trabue did not transport people for money, which he told detectives during an earlier interview was a common occurrence, according to the affidavit.

SIX KNIVES AND A BELT OF BLOOD PLANE

On the night of July 9, 2023, police executed a search warrant for Flood’s clothing at Goodwin’s residence on Madison Avenue, where Goodwin told detectives that Flood had showered on July 7, 2023.

Flood told police he had one broken knife among his belongings, Monahan said in the affidavit.

Police say they found six knives among the items obtained as part of the search warrant. The statement shows that no blood was found in any of them.

Trained police dogs were brought in to search the cemetery where Trabue’s body was found. Both searches found no knives.

Speaking to detectives a third time on July 11, 2023, Goodwin said Flood was no longer at his home, but there was a belt in the bathroom that belonged to Flood, Monahan wrote in the affidavit.

The Maine State Police Crime Laboratory determined that the blood on the belt matched Trabue’s DNA profile.

Paradie, Flood’s attorney, raised doubts about the bar in an October 2023 memorandum filed with the court after Flood’s bail hearing, arguing that officials did not have probable cause to keep Flood in custody.

“Flood did not indicate whether the belt actually belonged to him, and this has not been determined at this stage,” the case files read. “There is a distinct possibility that if Trabue brought this belt to Goodwin’s residence, traces of his blood were already on it.

“There is also a distinct possibility that the belt belonged to Goodwin, as it was in his possession after Flood moved out of Goodwin’s apartment with his belongings. “Furthermore, Goodwin made no mention of the belt in his first two interviews, suggesting that he was trying to hide it.”

In the same report, Paradie pointed out that Flood’s knives and other belongings did not show the presence of blood in the body, and his client did not make any incriminating statements to the police.

Court records show that Mullen, a Superior Court judge, sided with prosecutors, finding probable cause for Flood’s arrest and denying him bail.

STATEMENTS TO THE POLICE

Flood’s defense strategy may also depend on whether statements given to investigators can be used as evidence at trial.

Court records show Paradie filed a motion on Flood’s behalf to suppress his statements to police. The motion says investigators showed a “deliberate and blatant” disregard for Flood’s Miranda rights when they questioned him several times.

Three state police investigators — Monahan, Detective Cpl. James Moore and Detective Cpl. Hugh Landry – Testified during an Oct. 17 hearing about detectives’ interactions with Flood.

He was cooperative during six interactions with Flood, according to testimony from three detectives who described friendly and casual conversations with Flood.

Three detectives testified at trial that when they contacted Flood, they posed as police officers and told him he did not have to answer questions.

Bogue, the prosecutor assigned to the case, argued to the court in notes filed before and after the Oct. 17 hearing that Flood’s statements were made voluntarily and that detectives handled him appropriately.

As of Friday afternoon, Mullen had not yet issued a ruling on the motion to suppress Flood’s testimony and planned to take it up over the weekend, a court official said.

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