Dec. 9—Brandon Libby told police several times that the gunshot that killed his girlfriend was an unfortunate accident.
In multiple phone calls, interviews and while walking detectives through his home, he told police that she had pointed the gun at him and it discharged when he tried to push it away. She must have been the one to pull the trigger, he told a detective.
That’s not what investigators later concluded.
Libby, 37, of Standish, was arrested and charged in November 2021 with murder in the death of of 30-year-old Amanda Brown, who died from a single gunshot wound to the stomach after an argument with Libby on June 14, 2021. He is now on trial in Cumberland County Superior Court after pleading not guilty and spending the last three years in jail.
In the fourth day of trial on Monday, a Maine State Police sergeant who reconstructed the shooting challenged Libby’s story, saying the gunshot must have been his fault.
But a forensic science researcher from the University of New Haven testified for the defense that it’s impossible to make that conclusion, alleging the detective’s reconstruction didn’t follow a scientific approach.
NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING
Libby told police the shooting stemmed from a recurring argument between him and Brown. He told police she was upset that he hadn’t been home for dinner to help with their two young children, according to several recordings played as evidence.
The two were drinking, arguing and trying to put their children to bed. At one point, Libby said Brown took his pistol off of their nightstand and pointed it at him. Libby said he lunged toward her and pushed at the gun.
There was no struggle, he said, but he doesn’t remember exactly what happened when it went off. He was adamant to police at the time that he never grabbed the gun or touched the trigger.
After Brown had been shot, Libby didn’t call 911. She was gone, he said in the recordings. He laid her body down in bed next to him, where it was discovered by police two days later.
“She was just gone so quick, there was no blood, nothing,” Libby said in an interview with police days after the shooting. “I had no idea what to do. With the kids. … She was the best thing that’s ever happened to them.”
SHOOTING RECONSTRUCTION
But prosecutors brought in multiple experts over two days who reconstructed the shooting and ultimately believed Libby’s story didn’t add up.
Dr. Liam Funte, Maine’s deputy chief medical examiner, testified on Friday that the trajectory of the bullet was downward from left to right. All bullets travel in a straight line from the barrel, he said.
After performing the autopsy, Funte concluded that Brown had died in a homicide from a gunshot wound to her stomach.
But to show the jury how he arrived at the conclusion that Brown’s death was a homicide, Maine State Police Sgt. Larry Rose, who reconstructed the shooting, demonstrated his method in court on Monday. He held a navy blue 3D model of the same gun, a semi-automatic Walther PPS 9mm pistol, and posed as Brown, attempting to turn the gun on himself the way Libby described to police.
“I’ve tried multiple directions, I tried doing what I actually see in the (interview) videos of Mr. Libby pushing it down or pushing it away,” Rose said.
With either motion, Rose said, he can’t get the pistol to point in the correct trajectory. He demonstrated with Maine State Police Detective Justin Huntley as well.
But during the cross-examination, Libby’s attorney Daniel Wentworth suggested that Brown’s wrist could be more flexible than Rose’s, and that he didn’t account for her or Libby’s movement or where they were standing. The flexibility question was key Monday, as the defense team brought in their own expert to back up Libby’s version of events, Brooke Weinger Kammrath, a forensic science researcher from the University of New Haven.
Kammrath, who reviewed the evidence in the case, said it would be necessary to learn more about Brown’s body, and whether she had experience with yoga or flexibility training.
But Rose said his results wouldn’t change depending on where they were standing. His examination was based on what Libby said in police interviews, he said.
“He never described in any way how her wrist was articulated,” Rose said. “As far as hypotheticals go, it’s hard to do things hypothetically when you don’t have all of the information.”
Though Kammrath called Rose’s examination a “reenactment,” she said it was still “overly simplistic” and didn’t account for all of the variables, including their body orientation and Brown’s physical form.
“There’s not enough physical evidence to allow for a scientific determination of what happened in this case,” Kammrath said.
Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese asked Kammrath in the cross-examination whether she’d agree that in homicide investigations, law enforcement needs to use “good common sense.”
“I’m a scientist, common sense is dangerous in that case,” Kammrath said.
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