MACHIAS, Maine — Opening statements Tuesday in the double murder trial of a Houlton man shed no light on a possible motive for the crime spree he was accused of more than three years ago.
Matthew Davis, 35, is accused of killing Michael Kitchen, 51, and Heidi Pratt, 49, on Sept. 23, 2013, then setting their Oakfield home ablaze. He also is accused of stealing vehicles, setting other fires and damaging property.
Neither Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber nor defense attorney Daniel Lilley of Portland told jurors in their opening statements how Davis may have known the victims.
“We do not have to prove to you why Matthew Davis committed these crimes,” the prosecutor told the jury. “You might have some ideas based on the evidence and testimony of the witnesses why Mr. Davis committed this crime, but we are not required to prove that to you beyond a reasonable doubt. Sometimes people commit crimes they don’t have a good reason for.”
Lilley told jurors that while the state does not have to prove motive, they may consider a lack of motive in deciding whether Davis is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The defense attorney also said there are no eyewitnesses to the crimes Davis is accused of and there is no confession.
“Their case is circumstantial, and circumstantial evidence will not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Matt is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” Lilley said.
He told jurors that none of the victims’ blood nor any gunshot residue was found on Davis’ hands or clothes. He also said that none of the accelerant used to start at least two of the fires was found on the defendant.
“The absence of evidence, of scientific evidence may acquit a person as well as make them be found guilty,” Lilley said.
Members of the victims’ families and Davis’ family sat on opposite sides of the courtroom for opening statements. They left the courthouse without speaking with reporters as did the attorneys.
Testimony is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday with the neighbors who heard the gunshots and emergency responders who found the bodies expected to take the stand.
The trial is expected to take 2½ to three weeks.
The trial initially had been 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 of 12 with two alternates in Aroostook County, a county with a total population of fewer than 70,000.
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.
In Houlton, 123 jurors had been in the pool. About 260 were in the pool in Machias when the selection process began on Thursday. About half were dismissed last week after they all filled out a 15-page questionnaire. Another large group of potential jurors was dismissed at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, before a jury of nine women and six men, including three alternates, was selected from the 38 remaining Washington County residents at about 3 p.m. on the fourth day of jury selection.
Davis, 35, faces charges of murder, arson, theft and criminal mischief. He has been held without bail since his arrest the day Pratt and Kitchen died three years ago.
Neighbors of the victims heard five or six gunshots at about 4:30 a.m. Sept. 23, 2013, that day and saw a lone male driver leaving the scene of the burning home in a pickup truck, according to an affidavit filed by Maine State Police Detective Elmer Farren.
The bodies of Kitchen and Pratt were found in a bedroom after firefighters were called to put out the fire.
An autopsy conducted at the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta determined that Kitchen died from multiple gunshot wounds and Pratt from a gunshot wound to the neck. Some of the wounds were inflicted by a semi-automatic rifle purchased by Davis, according to the affidavit. Davis never reported the gun stolen, and it was found lying across Kitchen’s body in the burned remnants of the home, according to the court document.
Firefighters also found another truck belonging to Katahdin Forest Products on fire at the home when they arrived. Police believe Davis’ crime spree started earlier that morning at the forest products facility in Oakfield, where a flatbed wrecker truck registered to Davis had been backed into the building. Both the truck and office had caught fire. Police said video surveillance from that site showed the same white company truck that was found burning at the Kitchen home leaving the facility.
The truck Davis allegedly drove from the Kitchen home was found burning later that Monday morning on Richardson Road in the neighboring town of Island Falls. Another firearm found inside that vehicle belonged to Davis, according to the affidavit.
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 the affidavit.
If convicted, Davis faces up 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.