PORTLAND – A Cumberland County Sheriff’s Deputy said he is trained to assume any movement he sees in a potential home invasion is to be considered a person, wrapping up three days of testimony in a Standish attempted murder case.

Det. Sgt. James Estabrook said he reported seeing someone inside when he arrived at the home of Linda and Jeffrey Dolloff a year ago, but told jurors that didn’t necessarily mean that the movement he saw was actually a person.

“If you see any movement, you assume it’s a person,” Estabrook testified.

Whether Estabrook actually saw someone on the first floor of the Dolloff house has been a central point in the opening days of the trial of Linda Dolloff, who prosecutors say severely beat her husband with a baseball bat and then shot herself in the hip and reported a home invasion to cover up the assault. She has been charged with attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault and filing a false report.

Her attorney Daniel Lilley has said police too quickly dismissed Linda Dolloff’s report of a home invasion. If Estabrook did see someone on the first floor, that strengthens Linda Dolloff’s case, because she was on the second floor talking to a 911 operator before police arrived, Lilley has suggested.

The trial opened last Wednesday and Estabrook was just the third person to take the stand. Cumberland County Sheriff’s Sgt. Alfred Winslow, who arrived at the Dolloff house about the same time as Estabrook last April 12, took the stand this morning. Winslow and his dog, Jag, searched around the Dolloff house for any sign that someone had run from the home. Estabrook had previously testified that no sign of anyone else was found and that was one of the reasons that led investigators to focus on an attempted murder-suicide between the couple, who were about to divorce.