Albert Flick is led out of the courtroom after his initial appearance in the Androscoggin County Courthhouse in Auburn Wednesday morning.

AUBURN — Albert Flick, the Auburn man accused of fatally stabbing Kimberly Dobbie on Sunday in Lewiston, did not enter a plea when he made his first court appearance Wednesday, and was being held without bail.

Kimberly Dobbie

His defense attorney, Allan Lobozzo, said he may ask for a bail hearing at a later date. Prosecutors opposed bail. For now, the judge said, Flick will be held in the Androscoggin County Jail with no option for bail.

Flick had spent over two decades in jail for stabbing his wife to death in 1979. He has a long criminal history of attacking women in Cumberland County.

Androscoggin County Superior Court Justice MaryGay Kennedy impounded the affidavit written in support of probable cause and a search warrant in the case, granting motions filed by Assistant Attorney General Robert “Bud” Ellis.

In his motion to impound the search warrant and affidavit, Ellis wrote that the homicide investigation is ongoing and that “disclosure … will interfere with the investigation and prosecution of the case.”

Ellis also wrote that the affidavit “contains information pertaining to the identity of certain cooperating civilian witnesses whose identity the state seeks to protect from public disclosure at this time.”

A grand jury must indict Flick on a murder count before he can enter a plea and be tried on that charge. Prosecutors filed a complaint Monday charging Flick with murder after his arrest. Punishment for murder in Maine is 25 years to life.

Flick wore headphones for the hearing impaired at his court appearance Wednesday. Kennedy confirmed several times with Flick during his appearance that he could hear what she was saying.

It’s not known if the prosecution’s case against Flick will be ready in time to present to the grand jury when it next deliberates in early August.

Police say Flick stabbed Dobbie, 48, to death in front of her 11-year-old twin boys outside a laundromat on Sabattus Street. He was arrested and charged upon his release from Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, where he had been treated for chest pains after being tackled by passers-by who attempted to aid Dobbie, police said.

Dobbie and Flick had been acquainted with each other, but hadn’t been romantically involved, police said.

Dobbie was stabbed when she stepped outside Rancourt’s Laundromat at 11 a.m. Sunday. Her children boys watched as passers-by pulled Flick off their mother and held him down until police arrived.

Dobbie had been living with her sons at Hope Haven Gospel Mission on Lincoln Street in Lewiston.

According to police, Dobbie had just started a load of laundry when she stepped outside the building. Surveillance video shot at a nearby store shows Dobbie walking past that store and then Flick pacing back and forth for several minutes just before the assault. The video also shows Dobbie’s boys running back and forth between their mother and the laundromat during the attack.