AUGUSTA — The prosecution maintains Scott Bubar placed a shotgun and car keys under his father’s dead body after a shootout with police May 19, 2017, in Belgrade.
But defense attorney Lisa Whittier says Bubar, who is on trial on charges of aggravated attempted murder of a sheriff’s deputy and criminal threatening with a firearm, “would have to be a scene reconstruction genius” not to get any of his DNA on the weapon or the keys, because he was bleeding from a gunshot wound to the stomach.
The arguments were heard Thursday at the Capital Judicial Center, the seventh day of the nonjury trial of Bubar, 41, of Brunswick.
Defense attorney Lisa Whittier had asked for a judgment of acquittal after the prosecution finished presenting its evidence. She said the state’s evidence was insufficient to sustain a conviction for the aggravated attempted murder of Sgt. Jacob Pierce and for the criminal threatening charge.
In that exchange of gunfire late on May 19, 2017, Roger Bugar, 65, who lived at the 1003 Oakland Road home, was killed and Scott Bubar was wounded, both by shots fired by Pierce.
On Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh told Justice Michaela Murphy, “It is the state’s position we have proven behind a reasonable doubt that Mr. Scott Bubar discharged the shotgun twice in the trailer and is guilty of what he is charged.”
Murphy ruled that three of the four shots fired in or from the trailer while police were outside were not aggravated attempted murder against a police officer. She told prosecutors they would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt — with the evidence already submitted — that Scott Bubar had fired the fourth shot intentionally at Pierce, who was across the road from the trailer, and that the shot also threatened others.
Cavanaugh said evidence shows that Scott Bubar fired the 12-gauge shotgun inside the home, striking the kitchen door, which also served as the entry door, and the shot crossed a woman in a bed and went near Roger Bubar, who was standing at the door.
The state also says Bubar was an accomplice to criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon when a 9 mm pistol was fired inside the home by Roger Bubar.
The court arguments followed a Thursday morning visit by the judge and the attorneys to the Bubar trailer to view the scene inside.
Murphy at one point told Cavanaugh she brought two 27-foot measuring tapes with her to determine whether the shotgun was fired 42 feet from the front door, as a witness had testified.
“It didn’t come close,” she said.
Whittier contends that Scott Bubar did not fire either weapon, and a defense expert testified that Scott Bubar’s DNC was excluded from the DNA found on weapons.
Both defense and prosecution experts testified that Roger Bubar’s DNA was found on both weapons.
“He did not in any way aid or abet or facilitate what his father was doing,” Whittier said, adding that Bubar told police in interviews “He did everything he could to prevent what Roger Bubar was doing that night.”
Bubar told the judge he had elected not to testify at his trial, and the defense rested as well, with defense attorney Scott Hess reminding the judge that five defense witnesses had testified earlier.
Cavanaugh expounded on the state’s theory of the case, saying Scott Bubar had the car keys since he had been driving his father’s red Mustang, and that he placed those and the shotgun — which the state maintains he fired twice — under Roger Bubar’s body in the hallway during the three hours after the shooting stopped and before Scott Bubar left the trailer in compliance with police orders.
Whittier said Bubar could not have wiped his own DNA off the shotgun while leaving Roger Bubar’s on it. She also said that evidence showed Scott Bubar “was bleeding profusely from the stomach.”
In a recorded interview with police from his hospital bed five days after the shootout, Scott Bubar said he took his clothes off and crawled into the bathroom tub after being shot. He said he knew his father was dead at that point.
Last week, Pierce testified that he saw a man with a green T-shirt with a “high and tight” haircut in a window of the trailer where he also saw a muzzle flash. However, he said he did not see a firearm at the time.
Pierce and another officer testified that Roger Bubar, who was wearing a red shirt that night and had long hair, had come out onto the front porch of the trailer and threatened them. He was carrying a shotgun but did not point it at them, Pierce said.
Courtroom monitors showed color photographs of Roger Bubar’s body facedown on the carpeted hallway with the barrel of the shotgun poking out from underneath. After the body was removed, additional photos showed the outline of the shotgun’s trigger area in the blood stains.
Neighbors had called police that night, complaining about squealing tires, hollering and a shot fired at Roger Bubar’s residence.
Scott Bubar told police his father went to Brunswick to pick him up and the two stopped at two locations to pick up alcohol on the way to Roger Bubar’s home. The state’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Mark Flomenbaum, said toxicology tests on Roger Bubar’s 5-foot, 110-pound body, showed a blood alcohol content of 0.163, which is more than twice the driving limit for adults over 21. Tests showed that his system also had clonazepam, cocaine, morphine, ritalin or byprodcuts, and TCH, the active ingredient in marijuana.
Closing arguments in the case are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Oct. 1.
Scott Bubar, center, listens as his lawyers Lisa Whittier and Scott Hess prepare their opening remarks at Bubar’s trial in Augusta on Sept. 10. Bubar is standing trial on a charge of aggravated attempted murder of a sheriff’s deputy during a shootout May 19, 2017, in Belgrade. (Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal)
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