By Lisa Chmelecki,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Leslie Stasulis could have cracked her skull by being thrown up against the brick wall behind her bar on Lisbon Street.

She could have smashed her head on the pavement of Route 126 after being dragged out of the back of a parked pickup truck.

Or she could have done it by falling from the truck while it was moving.

It doesn’t matter, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese told jurors Wednesday.

No matter where and how the fatal injury occurred, it was manslaughter, Marchese said, and the person responsible is Roger Keene.

“Would Leslie be alive if not for the conduct of Roger Keene? The only answer to that question is, Yes, of course, she would,'” Marchese said during her closing arguments in the state’s case against Keene, Stasulis’ former boyfriend.

Keene’s lawyer, George Hess, offered a different perspective when it was his turn to summarize the seven days of testimony in Androscoggin County Superior Court.

He urged the jurors to consider the state’s inability to prove exactly where and how Stasulis sustained the head injury that caused her death in September 2003.

“You don’t convict on possibilities,” Hess said. “You don’t convict on conjecture. You don’t convict on speculation.”

Worse fear’

Keene, 42, stands accused of manslaughter, kidnapping and attempted murder in connection with Stasulis’ death.

The jurors – a panel of eight men and four women – deliberated for three hours Wednesday before being sent home with instructions to return in the morning.

A mother of five girls and the owner of downtown bar, Stasulis was found beaten and bloody in the middle of Route 126 in Sabattus on Sept. 12, 2003.

She died nine days later as the result of severe head trauma. She was 42.

The state has alleged a classic case of domestic violence: Keene and Stasulis were having an affair and Stasulis wanted to end it.

“The defendant’s worst fear was coming true,” Marchese said. “Leslie Stasulis was going back to her husband, and he was losing control.”

Keene’s story of what happened has changed several times over the course of a half-dozen police interrogations.

In the end, he acknowledged that he fought with Stasulis behind her bar, Leslie’s Place, on the night of Sept. 11, 2003.

His lawyer told the jurors Wednesday that the couple “exchanged hits,” then Keene put Stasulis in the back of his pickup truck and headed to his house in Litchfield.

Keene claims Stasulis fell from the back of the truck, but by the time he realized she was gone and went back to find her, she was already being treated by paramedics. So he left.

No blood

Marchese asked the jurors to consider the truth of Keene’s story, considering that Stasulis’ body was found perfectly perpendicular in the eastbound lane of Route 126, with her hands by her sides.

“It simply doesn’t make any sense,” she said.

The state’s theory is that Keene dragged Stasulis to the middle of the road to cover up what he had done.

“He was hoping someone would run over her, and that is attempted murder,” Marchese said.

Arguing the attempted murder charge, Hess reminded the jury that Stasulis’ blood was not found on the clothes Keene wore that night. He also pointed out that Stasulis could have moved herself after falling from the truck.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the state has failed to prove Mr. Keene guilty of these offenses beyond a reasonable doubt,” the Lewiston defense attorney said.

All three charges are Class A crimes, punishable by up to 40 years each in prison.

With the kidnapping charge, the jurors have the option of convicting Keene of the less-serious offense of criminal restraint.

The lesser charge simply requires restraining someone against their will. Kidnapping includes the act of exposing the person to the risk of serious bodily injury or death.

Keene is being held at Androscoggin County Jail, pending the outcome of the trial.