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

Roland Flood, 62, of Madison, is accused of killing his former roommate, Mark Trabue, 57, of Anson, in July 2023. Flood’s trial is scheduled to begin this week in Superior Court Somerset County from Skowhegan. Photo from Somerset County Jail

Roland Flood, 62, is accused of killing Mark Trabue in July 202357, of Anson, according to court records.

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

Prospective jurors are expected to appear in Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan on Monday. The jury is expected to be finalized for the trial by Tuesday.

Superior Court Chief Justice Robert E. Mullen is expected to preside over the trial, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday and could continue into next week.

If convicted of murder, Flood could face 25 years to life in prison.

Flood was indicted by a Somserset County grand jury in October 2023 on charges of intentional or knowing or depraved murder, according to court records.

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

Records from police and prosecutors suggest Flood had an argument with Trabue days before the alleged murder. Flood had previously lived at Trabue’s home in Anson, according to court records.

In a phone call Friday, Flood’s court-appointed attorney maintained his client’s innocence.

“Without giving a ton away, our defense will be that Mr. Flood had no involvement in Mr. Trabue’s murder and that we believe one or more others are responsible,” Verne E. Paradie Jr. of the Lewiston law firm. said Paradie & Rabasco. “That’s what we hope to show during the trial.”

Paradie declined to elaborate on Flood’s anticipated defense.

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

‘HOW WOULD YOU LIKE 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 for Flood’s arrest warrant written by Maine State Police Detective Jillian Monahan.

Two callers reported an unresponsive man passed out in a car, and Somerset County Sheriff’s Office deputies found Trabue dead with what appeared to be stab wounds to his chest, neck and throat, he wrote Monahan in the affidavit.

The car was registered to 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 morning before Trabue’s body was found, he had been reported missing by Susan Viles, 61, according to the affidavit. Viles told police she lived with Trabue and Flood had previously lived with them because she was in a romantic relationship with him.

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

Trabue was last seen alive around 3:45 p.m. on July 7, 2023, on Main Street in Madison, according to an October 2023 prosecutors’ filing. Around that time, Trabue and Flood exchanged several phone calls, Assistant Attorney General Lisa R. Bogue wrote in the filing, which was related to a bail hearing.

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

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

On July 6, 2023, two days before Trabue’s body was found, Flood and Trabue argued at the Anson residence, Viles told detectives.

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?” Flood responded, according to Viles’ statements to detectives.

During the same interview, Viles told detectives he took Flood’s comment about seeing Trabue with the younger couple as a “clue” because Flood had previously said he knew a couple who might be hired to commits murder, Monahan wrote in the affidavit. .

Later that morning, detectives interviewed Flood at the residence of 48-year-old Christopher Goodwin on Madison Avenue in Madison, where Flood was staying temporarily, the affidavit said. 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. The man and woman were recently identified by Skowhegan police in a Facebook post about a theft incident, Monahan wrote in the affidavit. A detective later questioned the woman in the Facebook post, who provided an alibi, according to the affidavit.

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

Flood also told Viles in that phone call that Trabue doesn’t drive people around for money, which he had told detectives during earlier questioning was a regular occurrence, according to the affidavit.

SIX KNIVES AND A BLOOD-STAINED CROWN

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 made it rain on July 7, 2023.

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

The police say that among the items obtained through the search warrant, they found six knives. None of them tested positive for blood, according to the affidavit.

Trained police dogs were brought in to search the cemetery where Trabue’s body was found. The two searches turned up no knife.

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

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

Paradie, Flood’s attorney, raised doubts about the belt in an October 2023 memorandum filed in court after a hearing on Flood’s bail, arguing that officials had no probable cause to keep Flood in custody.

“Flood did not indicate that the belt was actually his and that has not been determined at this time,” the filing states. “There is a distinct possibility that if Trabue had brought that belt to Goodwin’s residence, a trace of his blood was already on that belt.

“There is also a distinct possibility that the belt belonged to Goodwin, as he was in possession of the belt after Flood moved himself and his belongings out of Goodwin’s apartment. Additionally, Goodwin failed to mention the belt on the first two occasions he was questioned, suggesting his attempts to conceal the same.”

In the same filing, Paradie pointed out that Flood’s knives and other belongings did not test positive for blood, and his client made no incriminating statements to police.

Superior Court Judge Mullen sided with prosecutors, finding there was probable cause to arrest Flood and denying him bail, according to court records.

STATEMENTS TO THE POLICE

Flood’s defense strategy could also depend on whether statements he made to investigators can be used as evidence during his trial.

Paradie filed a motion on Flood’s behalf to suppress Flood’s statements to police, according to court records. According to the motion, investigators showed a “willful and flagrant” disregard for Flood’s Miranda rights when they questioned him multiple times.

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

In six interactions with Flood, he was cooperative, according to the testimony of the three detectives, who described friendly and casual conversations with Flood.

The three detectives testified at the hearing that during their interactions with Flood, they identified themselves as police officers and told him that he did not have to answer any questions.

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

As of Friday afternoon, Mullen had yet to issue his order on the motion to suppress Flood’s statements and planned to work on it over the weekend, a court clerk said.

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