AUBURN — A medical expert testified Tuesday that two of the stab wounds that killed the alleged victim of local murder defendant Albert Flick penetrated her heart and lung.
Albert Flick awaits the start of his murder trial in Androscoggin County Superior Court in Auburn on Monday. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
Prosecutors rested their case against Flick, 77, shortly before noon after Dr. Lisa Funte, Maine’s deputy chief medical examiner, told an Androscoggin County Superior Court jury that she counted at least 11 stab and incise wounds to Kimberly Dobbie, 48, including one that was more than 4 inches deep that cut the left ventricle of her heart. Another wound fractured a rib and pierced her right lung.
“Obviously, injury to the heart is a very serious injury,” Funte said.
Dobbie died from blood loss, Funte said.
Earlier Tuesday, a DNA expert at the Maine Crime Lab testified that she matched to Dobbie’s DNA profile swabs of blood from a knife found at the scene and from the front of a blue shirt Flick had been wearing on July 15, 2018, the day Dobbie was stabbed to death.
Dobbie was doing her laundry at a Sabattus Street laundromat in Lewiston that day. Prosecutors said she was sitting on steps outside the building when Flick attacked her with a 5-inch paring knife he bought at Walmart two days earlier. Cathy MacMillan said she also matched to Dobbie’s profile swabs of blood stains taken from the steps.
The defense called two witnesses Tuesday before resting its case at about 1:30 p.m.
A paramedic said he treated Flick at the Lewiston Police Station after he had been subdued outside the laundromat, then later complained of chest pain.
An emergency room doctor testified that she had evaluated Flick for a possible heart condition at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.
Justice MaryGay Kennedy told Flick he had a right to testify in his defense. She asked whether he had talked to his attorney, Allan Lobozzo, about waiving that right.
After Flick expressed some doubt, Kennedy recessed to give him time to confer with Lobozzo.
When he returned to the courtroom, Kennedy asked Flick whether he was on any medication that might hinder his decision-making process. He said he hadn’t gotten his diabetes medication that morning and that might affect his thinking.
Kennedy recessed again, then later adjourned court for the day.
The case is expected to be handed over to the jury for deliberation Wednesday after closing arguments.
Samantha Massey, a paramedic with United Ambulance, testified Tuesday morning that when she arrived on the crime scene at 10:02 a.m. July 15, 2018, she saw a woman lying against the steps and a man in handcuffs on the ground.
Rushing to the victim, Massey said Dobbie had “irregular breathing” and “very waxy” skin. The worst of her injuries appeared to be just below the rib cage, she said.
They got her to the hospital seven minutes later, Massey said, but lost Dobbie’s pulse just as they arrived.
Doctors “ended up cracking her chest,” massaging her heart and suturing at least one wound, Massey said, but Dobbie died before 11 a.m., despite the physicians’ efforts.
Lewiston Police Officer Timothy Blais said that when he arrived at the scene, he handcuffed Flick, searched him and put him in the back of a police cruiser.
During the search, he found a sheathed knife in Flick’s right pocket, just like the one lying in the street with a reddish substance on its blade. He tossed the sheathed knife on the sidewalk as he led Flick away.
On Monday, jurors watched surveillance video of the attack and footage of Flick buying two pink-handled paring knives at the home goods section of the local Walmart two days earlier.
Witnesses testified Monday that Flick had become enamored of Dobbie to the point of obsession in the months leading up to her death. Although he wasn’t a resident there, Flick dined often at Hope Haven Gospel Mission where Dobbie had been staying with her 11-year-old sons while awaiting an opening for an apartment in Farmington where she planned to move. He would follow her and her boys around town, witnesses said.
Sun Journal staff writer Steve Collins contributed to this report
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