PARIS — Testimony about blood stains, fingerprints and a frying pan dominated the sixth day of the murder trial of Agostino J. Samson in Oxford County Superior Court on Friday.

The 23-year-old Windham man is accused of bludgeoning to death his former employer, Scott Libby, 25, of Raymond, this past February in Bethel.

Libby was found lying dead across the front seat of his car, which had been parked on railroad tracks near the Barker Road crossing. The car had been hit from behind by a slow-moving train at about 2:45 a.m. on Feb. 20.

Police determined that Libby died of injuries unrelated to the crash. An autopsy by the state Medical Examiner's Office revealed the cause of death was strangulation and blunt-force trauma to the head, police said.

Samson, who worked at Libby's greenhouse during the summer of 2008, met with Libby late the night before at the Bethel Hostel on Route 2, where Samson was renting a room, the affidavit said. The meeting was arranged so Samson could pay Libby the $400 he had loaned and Libby could return a watch and bracelet held as collateral, police said.

The hostel is less than a quarter-mile from where Libby's car was found.

On Friday, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson called the prosecution's final witnesses, including Cathy MacMillan, a forensic DNA analyst with the Maine State Police Crime Lab. She was unable to confirm the presence of blood on the watch due to the small size of a stain there. However, she said the DNA profile showed a likely match to Libby; a second DNA profile could not be determined.

MacMillan said an alcohol swab found in the hostel's garbage had Libby's DNA profile on it, as well as a profile that matched Samson's DNA at certain points. One in 39 people would fit the profile, she said.

Other tests found Libby's DNA in bloodstains on the exterior of his car and on a doorknob of the hostel. A second DNA profile that did not match Samson was found in the doorknob test. MacMillan said it was possible that DNA unrelated to the blood could have been collected in the test.

Defense lawyer Maurice Porter said the partial profile matching Samson could apply to tens of thousands of people in Maine or the Boston area, where Libby sometimes worked as a bartender. MacMillan also said DNA profiles of stains found on Samson's shoes did not match Libby.

Alicia Wilcox, a latent print examiner with the crime lab, testified that a fingerprint of blood on the underside of one of the hostel doorknobs matched a known print of Samson's right pinkie. She said the lab was unable to confirm that the print was made of blood due to the small size of a sample taken. She said the print's color was consistent with other prints of blood that she has observed and was located near stains that tested positive for blood.

Porter suggested that numerous prints may have been left on the hostel doors by guests there.

Detective Scott Gosselin of the Maine State Police said he and Wilcox examined Libby's car for fingerprints, and were able to find finger marks in blood and partial ridges from fingerprints but nothing usable. He said bloodstain patterns inside the car were consistent with blood spatter from blunt-force assault and that blood on the interior of the door jamb suggested that some of the impacts may have occurred outside the car. Gosselin also said it appeared someone had gone through Libby's carry bag and glove compartment.

Under cross-examination, Gosselin said a number of objects in Samson's room at the hostel were tested for blood and all came up negative.

Hostel Manager Wyling Cambrium testified that a small cast-iron frying pan was missing from the hostel. The pan handle found in Libby's car looked similar to the one on the pan that was missing, Cambrium said.

Defense lawyer Porter showed Cambrium a statement in which he told police it had been three weeks since he saw the pan. Cambrium said Friday that he usually checks the kitchen utensils every few days to make sure they are in order.

Porter presented the court with a blue winter coat, which Samson's grandmother, Julia Larrabee of Windham, said was taken to her house after Samson moved out of the hostel. Prosecutor Benson has contended that Samson disposed of his coat after the killing.

The trial is scheduled to resume at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

mlangeveld@sunjournal.com