Defendant Albert Flick, left, stands with his lawyer, Allan Lobozzo, during Flick’s initial appearance July 18, 2018, in Androscoggin County Superior Court in Auburn. Sun Journal file photo

AUBURN — A jury was selected Monday in the murder trial of a local man accused of fatally stabbing a woman outside a Lewiston laundromat last summer as her twin sons looked on.

Kimberly Dobbie

Albert Flick, 77, appeared in Androscoggin County Superior Court dressed in a gray suit alongside his lawyer, Allan Lobozzo, who helped pick the 10 men and five women who will serve as jurors or alternates.

Flick had indicated earlier he might waive his right to a jury trial and opt to have a judge deliver the verdict. He changed his mind before signing the waiver.

Flick spent Monday morning in the courtroom listening with the aid of an enhanced hearing device as prospective jurors answered questions posed by Justice MaryGay Kennedy about possible conflicts of interest and bias.

Kennedy read the names of nearly 20 witnesses who may be called to testify at the trial. She also read the names of Lobozzo, the prosecutor and police detectives and asked whether any of the prospective jurors knew them.

While he awaits trial, Flick is being held without bail at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn. He has pleaded not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

Police say Flick stabbed Kimberly Dobbie, 48, in front of her then-11-year-old sons on the sidewalk outside Rancourt’s Laundrymat on Sabattus Street, where she had just started a load of laundry at about 11 a.m. on July 15, 2018. Dobbie had been living with her sons at Hope Haven Gospel Mission on Lincoln Street.

There is evidence Flick and Dobbie had known each other, but police said there was no indication the two had ever been involved romantically.

Surveillance video shot from a nearby store shows Dobbie’s sons running along the sidewalk during the attack. They apparently watched as several men pulled Flick off Dobbie and tackled him on the sidewalk.

Flick was convicted in 1979 of killing his wife, who was stabbed 14 times, including in the heart. He was sentenced to serve 30 years in prison and released Oct. 6, 2000. After he was released, Flick was charged with a string of additional crimes and was convicted in 2010 of assaulting a woman.