PORTLAND, Maine — A Superior Court justice has found probable cause to charge a Windham man with intentional or knowing murder in the shooting death of his wife last month.

Noah Gaston, 33, told police he shot and killed his wife, Alicia Gaston, 34, in the home they shared with their three children early on the morning of Jan. 14. He told detectives he believed her to be an intruder.

Noah Gaston allegedly shot her as she was coming up the stairs in the two-story, two-bedroom house.

“In this case, given the close range (4-6 feet) at which the gun appears to have been fired, the fact Mrs. Gaston was on one of the top stairs of the stairway, together with Mr. Gaston’s knowledge that his wife tended to be awake and downstairs before anyone else in the house, the court concludes that a reasonable person could believe that he was aware that it was his wife he was shooting on the date in question, and not an intruder,” Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy wrote in her decision dated Feb. 16.

Murphy set a bail hearing for Tuesday at the Cumberland County Courthouse.

Assistant Attorney General Deb Cashman, who is prosecuting the case, declined Friday to comment on Murphy’s decision or whether she would ask that Noah Gaston continue to be held without bail. It is the practice of the office not to comment on pending cases.

“The evidence presented during the hours of testimony was different in substantial ways from the affidavit first filed in this case,” defense attorney Luke Rioux of Portland said Friday afternoon in an email about his client qualifying for bail. “It is now clear to us that the evidence is consistent with what Mr. Gaston has said from day one: that he never intended to kill his wife.”

Rioux said that “cash and surety bail are possibilities” for his client.

“Mr. Gaston does have strong ties to the community, including a very supportive network from his church, and other friends and family,” the attorney said.

Rioux did not state the amount of bail he would recommend next week.

Court documents filed in the case said that Gaston was not working when his wife died and the couple had financial problems.

If convicted of murder, Gaston faces between 25 years and life in prison.