ROCKLAND, Maine — The fifth day of the trial of Charles Black, who is accused of throwing his wife off Maiden Cliff in Camden in 2011, concluded Friday with testimony from a Kansas estate lawyer, Maine’s former chief medical examiner, two state police detectives who interviewed Black, and state crime lab workers.
Stephen Bahr, an attorney from Kansas who specializes in estate planning, told jurors that Black accompanied his now ex-wife Lisa Zahn at each session she attended concerning the estate of her father, who died in January 2010. The total value of the estate was $6 million to $7 million, the attorney said.
“Reed (the name that Charles Reed Black went by) was much more active in the meetings than Lisa,” Bahr said.
After the death, Bahr met with Lisa and Charles Black to discuss estate planning but he testified Friday that he was not aware that she ever completed a will.
Former Maine Chief Medical Examiner Margaret Greenwald, who retired last month, testified she reviewed Lisa Zahn’s medical records and that the three wounds to her head from the April 2011 incident during which Black is accused of assaulting and trying to throw her off a cliff were consistent with being hit by a rock three times.
Under cross examination by defense attorney Walter McKee, Greenwald said the wounds could have resulted from falling off a cliff and then falling again and a third time but she said it was unlikely the wounds would have occurred in nearly the same location.
Zahn testified Wednesday that she was standing atop Maiden Cliff on April 7, 2011, having a picnic with Black when she felt being struck in the back of the head three times and then Black dragged her to the edge of the cliff and threw her off.
The final witness on Friday morning was Maine State Police Detective Jennifer Fiske. She was one of the state police officers who interviewed Charles Black for a second time on April 15, 2011, from his hospital room at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Black suffered injuries to his head as well as broken ribs and a punctured lung.
Black, 71, is charged with attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault and aggravated assault.
The first 35 minutes of the interview were taped but Fiske said the recorder’s battery died and detectives were unaware until after the interview. The 35-minute recorded interview was played to jurors Friday morning.
On that tape, Black said he had no memory of the attack.
He said he and Lisa were having a picnic and that she had said how they should return to Maiden Cliff for dessert, which Black said was her way of suggesting sex.
Black, who had said in an earlier interview that he had collected two rocks during the picnic, said in the second interview that he thought that the two of them should throw one of the rocks over the side of the cliff to symbolize getting rid of baggage from their marriage. Her rock would be her drinking and his would be his affair.
“I had no thought of hurting her,” Black said in the April 15, 2011, interview.
Under questioning by detectives, Black agreed that his wife would not lie.
One of the detectives questioning Black pointed out that he had three to four million reasons to lie — referring to her inheritance from her father — and that he could start a new life with another woman if Lisa Zahn had died.
Black said, however, that he had no thought of hurting his wife and that his next memory was of falling off the cliff.
“If I did this, sorry doesn’t cover it,” Black said.
Later Black asked how he could have done this to her stepdaughters, his son and his grandchildren.
Black said he loved his wife. That is when the recorded part of the interview ended.
On Friday afternoon, a DNA analyst for the Maine State Police crime laboratory testified that blood from Lisa Zahn was found on a shoe and the shoulder of the jacket worn by Black on the mountain.
The trial recessed on Friday and is scheduled to resume Monday morning. Justice Joyce Wheeler reminded jurors not to follow media coverage nor use Facebook.
During a morning recess, District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau acknowledged that this trial will be one of the more expensive ones for the district attorney’s office. Thus far, two witnesses have been flown in from out of state to testify.
Bahr was flown in from Kansas City and Black’s former mistress, Candice Carter, was flown in from Arizona. The witnesses also both were put up for one evening at local lodging places. Rushlau did not have an estimate on the total cost.
Rushlau and Assistant District Attorney Christopher Fernald are prosecuting the case, assisted by the two prosecutorial investigators.
The 12-member jury and two alternates include 12 women and two men.