AUGUSTA — Attorneys presented completely opposite views of what happened in a police-involved shooting at a Belgrade mobile home that left homeowner Roger Bubar, 65, dead and his son Scott Allen Bubar wounded.
The scenarios were part of closing arguments Monday at the Capital Judicial Center in the bench trial of Scott Bubar, 41, of Brunswick. Bubar was indicted on charges of aggravated attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon.
Deputy District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh cited the 29 witnesses who testified, saying the state has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Scott Bubar is guilty of both crimes stemming from the May 19, 2017, incident.
Cavanaugh said Scott Bubar fired the shotgun at Kennebec County Sheriff’s Deputy Sgt. Jacob Pierce, who was across the street on a neighbor’s property, and then slid the shotgun under Roger Bubar’s body as it lay in the hallway at some point in the 3.5 hours before police entered the trailer.
“Someone changed the crime scene between the last shot being fired and the first officer coming into the trailer,” Cavanaugh said.
He said Scott Bubar lied about what happened when he was interviewed later by detectives.
Bubar’s defense attorney, Scott Hess insisted there was no eyewitness, no physical evidence and no forensic evidence tying Scott Bubar to the crimes. Roger Bubar’s DNA was found on both firearms, and a defense expert testified that Scott Bubar’s DNA was not there.
Cavanaugh told the judge, “There’s strong circumstantial evidence” that Bubar was the shooter.
Hess used photos that showed blood identified as Scott Bubar’s on carpeting, on the toilet seat and elsewhere in the bathroom, on a mattress in a bedroom, and on the ground outside as he came out of the trailer in response to orders from state police.
“He would have to be a reconstruction genius” not to get blood on the shotgun if he moved it, Hess said, arguing, “Forensic evidence compels the conclusion Scott did not fire the guns.”
Justice Michaela Murphy closely questioned both attorneys about the sequence of events that night, as well as the dimensions of rooms and a hallway inside the trailer, which the judge said she found to be much smaller than they appear on photographs taken at the scene. The judge and attorneys walked through the trailer last week during a viewing of the scene.
Pierce fired a total of 16 shots at the trailer in two bursts, both times in response to a shotgun being fired from inside the trailer at or near his location. The prosecutors brought in pieces of a tree branch which they said showed evidence of damage from the gunfight.
Closing arguments ran for 2.5 hours, and the judge said she hoped to reach a verdict in the next few days once she reviewed all the evidence. She said she would notify attorneys when to return to the courtroom.
Murphy left the courtroom carrying a 15-inch thick pile of paper and folders. She also used a laptop to take notes in court.
The non-jury trial took eight days spread over a three-week period, with breaks to accommodate the court’s schedule and some witnesses.
Bubar did not testify at the trial, but the prosecutor on Monday replayed clips from a recording of Bubar being questioned by detectives in his hospital where he was recovering from his abdominal gunshot wound.
“I wasn’t holding a gun ever,” Bubar tells them, but then he adds that at some point he tried to wrestle the shotgun away from his father. Scott Bubar said he kept trying to get his father to stop shooting that night.
As his voice came over the speakers in the courtroom, two women sitting on benches in the public area behind Bubar sobbed aloud.
Hess urged the judge to listen to the full interviews of Bubar, saying Bubar is obviously upset about what happened. “He states 18 or 19 times he’s not sure what happened,” Hess said.
Neighbors had complained to police about hearing the two men arguing in the driveway of 1003 Oakland Road, squealing tires from Roger Bubar’s red Mustang, and then a gunshot.
Pierce testified that when he approached the trailer that night and knocked on the door, he could hear two voices inside saying, “We have shotguns we’ll f…ing kill you.”
Pierce said he initially intended to kick the door in, believing someone inside might have been wounded, but then retreated across the street after hearing what he believed to be a shotgun being racked or loaded and furniture being moved.
After that, Roger Bubar came out of the trailer carrying a long gun and stood on the front porch yelling threats before returning inside, Pierce said.
Hess said Pierce’s testimony was unreliable, particularly statements he made just prior to trial about seeing in a muzzle flash a person wearing a green T-shirt with a “high and tight” haircut around a muzzle flash. Scott Bubar wore a green T-shirt that night; Roger Bubar wore a red shit and had his gray hair pulled back in a ponytail.
Murphy said the focus of Pierce’s attention “had to be protecting himself, Deputy (Adam) Bacon and the neighbors.”
Scott Bubar told police his father came to Brunswick that day 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, or more than twice the driving limit for adults over 21. Tests showed that Roger Bubar’s system also had clonazepam, cocaine, morphine, ritalin or byprodcuts, and THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
Pierce testified he fired back twice after seeing muzzle flashes from inside the trailer, one into the area near the front door and once into a bedroom window.
“The easiest call for the court to make is that someone fired the shotgun out that window at Sgt. Pierce,” Murphy told Cavanaugh during his rebuttal. “Has the state proven who did it?”
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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