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

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

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

Potential jurors are expected to report Monday to Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan. The jury panel is expected to be finalized for the trial by Tuesday.

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

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

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

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

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

In a telephone call Friday, Flood’s court-appointed lawyer maintained his client is innocent.

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

Paradie declined to offer more details of Flood’s anticipated defense.

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

‘HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO DIE?’

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

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

The car was registered to Trabue.

An autopsy the next day by the Office of 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 lived with them previously because she was in a romantic relationship with him.

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

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

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

Hours after Trabue’s body was found 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 had an argument at the Anson residence, Viles told detectives.

Viles said she and Trabue were watching television, when Flood came in and tried to be alone with Viles, Monahan wrote in the affidavit. Trabue said he would not leave, and asked Flood, “How would you like to get 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 that she took Flood’s comment about seeing Trabue with the younger couple to be a “hint,” since Flood had said previously that he knew a couple who could be hired to commit murder, Monahan wrote in the affidavit.

Later that morning, Detectives interviewed Flood at the residence of Christopher Goodwin, 48, on Madison Avenue in Madison, where Flood was staying temporarily, the affidavit says. Flood told detectives he saw Trabue the afternoon of July 7, 2023, when Trabue dropped off clothing for him.

Flood said a man and woman were in the car with Trabue. The man and woman had been identified recently by Skowhegan police in a Facebook post about a shoplifting incident, Monahan wrote in the affidavit. A detective later questioned the woman from the Facebook post, who provided an alibi, according to the affidavit.

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

Flood also told Viles in that telephone call that Trabue does not drive people for money, which he had told detectives during the questioning earlier was a common occurrence, according to the affidavit.

SIX KNIVES AND A BLOOD-STAINED BELT

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 Flood had showered July 7, 2023.

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

Police say they found six knives among the items obtained through the search warrant. 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 did not turn up any knives.

Speaking to detectives for a third time July 11, 2023, Goodwin said Flood no longer was staying 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 Lab has determined blood on the belt matched Trabue’s DNA profile.

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

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

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

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

Mullen, the Superior Court justice, sided with prosecutors, finding there was probable cause for Flood’s arrest and denying him bail, according to court records.

STATEMENTS TO POLICE

Flood’s defense strategy might also depend on whether statements he made to investigators are allowed to 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. Investigators showed “intentional and blatant” disregard for Flood’s Miranda rights when questioning him on several occasions, according to the motion.

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 testimony from 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 he did not have to answer questions.

Bogue, the prosecutor assigned to the case, argued before the court in memorandums 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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