Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

ACCUSED OF KILLING HIS MOTHER

McDonald on tape: Didn't do it

Both sides agree he did kill her

By Betty Adams badams@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- Kenneth McDonald repeatedly denied any involvement in his mother's killing when interviewed by detectives a day after her death.

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DAY TWO: Kenneth McDonald walks from the Kennebec County Jail to the Kennebec Superior Court Tuesday during the second day of his murder trial.

Staff photo by Andy Molloy

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"I didn't do it. I didn't do anything," McDonald said. "I didn't do anything to my mother."

The 90-minute recorded police interrogation was played in its entirety Tuesday afternoon on the second day of McDonald's murder trial in Kennebec County Superior Court.

McDonald, 44, is accused of murdering his mother, Janice McDonald, 80, on Aug. 24, 2009, in the home they shared in Monmouth.

When Maine State Police Detective Abbe Chabot tells him his hand print is on her bed in blood, he responds, "They are?"

"She was alive when I left. I did not do anything," McDonald insists in the interview. "All I know is I woke up Monday morning and headed out."

In the large courtroom, it was difficult to distinguish some words on the audio recording. Jurors were provided with written transcripts to follow along.

In the interview, Chabot and another state police detective, Adam Kelley, tell him that all the evidence indicates he killed his mother.

"Sure as hell it wasn't me," McDonald said. "I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything to my mother."

He told the detectives in the interview that he and his mother got along well: "She's a very good mother. I liked her a lot. She had a very good personality."

Jurors spent the earlier part of Tuesday wading through more grisly forensic testimony.

They heard about human blood that pooled on a mattress and pillowcase, covered a steak knife, spattered a wall and headboard, and transferred to a sink and bathtub.

Photographs of those items and some of the items themselves taken from the McDonalds' Monmouth home were displayed for jurors Tuesday.

Maine State Police Detective Jason Richards testified he took photographs inside the Highland Terrace home that show a large pool of blood under the head of Janice McDonald.

Other photos depicted the inside of the home's bathroom with blood located on a sink, towels and clothing. A photo showed a steak knife with a bent blade.

The photographs were projected on a screen behind Richards so jurors could see them.

Richards also identified some of the evidence from the scene, including a handprint in blood on the bedroom wall and on a bottom sheet.

"We cut out around that handprint," Richards said. The cutting, which was sent to the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory, was handed to the judge as evidence Tuesday.

Brandi Caron, forensic chemist with the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory, testified she confirmed the presence of human blood in red-brown stains found around the bed of Janice McDonald and also on the floor, on a dryer, on the headboard, and as high as 51 inches up on a wall behind the headboard.

She also described the 8 3/16-inch-long steak knife investigators found on the bathroom vanity next to a pink comb.

"I observed tissue or debris as well as clumps of hair adhering to the hilt where the blood meets the handle," Caron testified.

Erin Miragliuolo, forensic DNA analyst, identified the DNA profiles from the blood as belonging to Janice McDonald, and skin cells from a bloody T-shirt and blood-spattered pajama bottoms as coming from Kenneth McDonald.

Ellen Horton, of Gardiner, McDonald's sister, testified Tuesday about a tearful visit with her brother on Sept. 3 while he was being held in Kennebec County jail.

"I was driven to find out what happened," Horton said. "I said I loved him and didn't understand, and we all loved him and we were all hurting and didn't understand."

She said her brother told her, " 'I always wanted to go on a trip to the coast and thought now was a good time.' He said to me, 'We argued. I left and then came back.' I asked him, 'Why didn't you walk away?'"

He told her, "I should have," she said.

Then he told her, "I guess I really screwed up this time."

Horton said she visited her mother every week, sometimes more often.

"I promised my mom on my dad's death I would take care of her and take her shopping," Horton said, her voice breaking.

On Monday, the deputy chief medical examiner testified that Janice McDonald died of sharp and blunt force trauma. Her body was discovered Aug. 24, 2009, after police were called to check on her welfare.

McDonald's attorney, James Billings, has said McDonald killed his mother; however, Billings said the killing was in reaction to a lifetime of abuse and occurred during an argument over whether McDonald could go on a vacation to the coast.

McDonald was located on the Maine coast the day after his mother's body was found.

Clayton Stromsky, deputy with Cumberland County Sheriff's Department, testified Tuesday he found McDonald on Aug. 25, 2009, in a parking area on Bailey Island. He was sitting on a boulder changing his socks, Stromsky said.

McDonald was arrested that day and has been in custody since.

McDonald has been undemonstrative in the courtroom, watching the photographs be displayed and listening to the testimony of experts. He occasionally looks over at the clock or down at his hands.

The state's presentation of evidence is expected to conclude today. Testimony resumes at 8:30 a.m.

Betty Adams -- 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com