Witnesses recount 2013 event
BDN Staff photo/Judy Harrison MACHIAS — Prosecution witnesses on the third day of the Matthew Davis double murder trial testified about events police have said took place before and after Michael Kitchen, 51, and Heidi Pratt, 49, were killed in the early morning hours of Sept. 23, 2013, in the Oakfield home they shared.
Davis, 35, of Houlton, is accused of setting their house ablaze and fleeing in a pick-up truck he took from the home. He also is accused of stealing other vehicles, setting other fires and damaging property.
Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber told the jury Tuesday, Dec. 6 in his opening statement that Davis’ alleged crime spree started before the slayings at Katahdin Forest Products Co., an Oakfield firm that makes log homes. A truck registered to the firm was found at Kitchen and Pratt’s home up against the house and on fire.
On Thursday, Maine State Police Cpl. Corey Hafford told the jury that he was called to Katahdin Forest Products while the firefighters were at the home. Hafford said that a flatbed wrecker truck registered to Davis had been backed into a building. Both the truck and the company’s office had been set on fire.
The truck Davis allegedly drove from the Kitchen/Pratt home was found burning later about 5:45 a.m. on Sept. 23, 2013, at a camp on Richardson Road in the neighboring town of Island Falls. Katie Cullen, assistant fire chief in Island Falls, testified Thursday that when firefighters arrived she heard a popping sound that she recognized from training exercises as bullets exploding. Once the fire was out, bullets were recovered from the stolen truck.
Dale White, the camp owner, testified that when he arrived on the scene, he saw that his small barn appeared to have been broken into and two kayaks were missing. One he found overturned by the dock on Mattawamkeag Lake. The other one, a yellow kayak, was missing.
It was found across the lake on a camp owner’s lawn, according to police.
The bodies of Kitchen and Pratt were found by Oakfield firefighters on opposite sides of the combined kitchen/living room area, according to testimony. A semi-automatic rifle was found on Kitchen’s chest.
Pratt died of a single gunshot wound to the neck, Dr. Mark Flomenbaum, chief medical examiner, told jurors Wednesday. She bled to death after a large-caliber bullet struck her carotid artery, he said.
Kitchen was struck by a dozen bullets that caused multiple internal injuries and massive internal bleeding, the medical examiner testified. Eleven of the wounds were caused by medium-caliber bullets and the 12th wound by a large-caliber bullet similar to the one recovered from Pratt’s body.
Assistant AG Macomber said in his opening statement that Davis shot Pratt and Kitchen first with a handgun. Davis then went to the truck he’d arrived in, retrieved an assault rifle and fired it into Kitchen’s body before setting the house on fire, the prosecutor told jurors Dec. 6.
Under cross-examination by Davis’ attorney, Daniel Lilley of Portland, Flomenbaum admitted there was “a microscopically slight possibility” that the couple died as a result of a murder-suicide but added that that scenario was not probable.
On Wednesday morning, William and Shannon Lloyd, who lived next door to the victims, both testified that they were awakened about 4 a.m. Sept. 23, 2013, by the sound of gunshots. Pratt was Shannon Lloyd’s aunt.
William Lloyd testified that he initially heard three or four shots, then, a few minutes later, heard an additional 10 to 12 shots rapidly fired.
Both said they saw a man with dark hair in a buzz cut with wide eyes drive Kitchen’s truck out of the couple’s garage through the closed door but did not recognize him that morning. The next day, William Lloyd identified the man driving Kitchen’s truck as Davis, he told the jury. William Lloyd said he saw a photo of Davis published on the Bangor Daily News’ Facebook page and recognized him.
The two men took a motorcycle class together about four years before the slayings, William Lloyd testified. He said that at that time, Davis had long hair, which he wore pulled back into a ponytail.
Under cross-examination by Lilley, William Lloyd denied that Davis was a friend but admitted he had socialized with him occasionally years before the slayings.
Shannon Lloyd said she never was able to identify the man who fled the scene in Kitchen’s pickup.
Police eventually tracked down Davis and arrested him at about 10:45 a.m. Sept. 23, 2013, in another stolen vehicle on Beaver Dam Point Road in Island Falls, according to court documents. He has been held without bail since then.
Davis appears to have gained about 40 pounds since then and has grown a goatee. He has appeared in a suit, shirt and tie each day of the trial. Davis’ wife and other family members have sat behind him in the courtroom.
Nearly a dozen members of the victims’ families have attended the trial every day but declined to be interviewed by reporters.
The trial initially was scheduled to start in Houlton in September. Davis’ attorneys, Lilley and Amber Tucker, had sought to move it to Portland, arguing that extensive pretrial publicity about the case would make it difficult to find an impartial jury in Aroostook County.
Superior Court Justice E. Allen Hunter originally denied the motion in August but moved the trial from Houlton to Machias in September, after a jury could not be seated in Aroostook County.
The selection process started Dec. 1 in Machias, and after four days, a jury was finally selected and seated Tuesday afternoon.
Testimony was expected to resume Friday about the collection of evidence from the crime scenes with members of the Maine State Police and the state fire marshal’s office taking the stand.
The trial is expected to take 2½ to three weeks. The state is expected to rest this week after technicians from the Maine State Crime Laboratory testify.
Lilley said in his opening statement that the state’s case was circumstantial and that no blood or DNA from the victims was found on Davis or his clothes.
If convicted, Davis faces up to 25 years to life in prison on the murder charges. Maine law allows life sentences when there are multiple victims.
BDN writer Jen Lynds contributed to this report.
