BIDDEFORD — A suspect charged in the fatal shooting of a Biddeford resident in 2016 is standing trial in York County Superior Court.

Timothy Ortiz, 22, of New York City, was arrested for murder in connection with the death of Jonathan Methot. 30, at his home at 68 West Cutts St. in Biddeford in the fall of 2016. His trial began in Alfred on Wednesday.

Ortiz acted in self-defense said his lawyer, Mark Peltier, on Wednesday.

Methot was shot and killed just after 1 a.m. Sept. 26, 2016, at the home, which is part of a duplex adjoining 70 West Cutts St. in the city.

Ortiz was taken into custody by police in Portland that same day on a probation violation for drug charges from New York, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety in 2016.

Police have not released substantial information about the murder and when Ortiz was arrested, McCausland said that details of the crime would come out as he moved through the judicial process.

Ortiz has been held at the Cumberland County Jail in Portland while awaiting trial. He did not enter a plea during a previous court appearance in 2017.

Both Ortiz and Methot had criminal records and the shooting is thought to have been drug related.

In February 2016, Ortiz was sentenced in Maine for aggravated sex trafficking, a Class B crime, and unlawful furnishing of scheduled drugs, a Class C offense. He was sentenced to four years in jail, with all but one year suspended, and three years’ probation.

At the time of his death, Methot had an 8-year-old son.

He had attended Biddeford High School and later earned his GED before taking a job assembling pallets at IFCO in Scarborough. He had a criminal history in Maine with most of the charges being misdemeanors, including a charge of operating under the influence. He also was convicted of felony drug trafficking and furnishing scheduled drugs, according to state records.

Following the murder, Methot’s mother said that her son had struggled with a prescription opiate addiction in the past, but was attending drug counseling sessions regularly.

A jury was seated Tuesday in York County Superior Court in Alfred.

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 ext. 326 or by email at editor@journaltribune.com. Edward D. Murphy with the Portland Press Herald contributed to this report.