His lawyer says Daniel Roberts killed Melissa Mendoza early Monday to defend the couple’s daughter.
The state Medical Examiner’s Office, meanwhile, said Mendoza, 29, died from a “gunshot wound to the head and brain.” It listed her death as a homicide.
Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said he would not comment on Auburn lawyer Lenny Sharon’s assertion that Roberts shot Mendoza to protect their 2-year-old.
The shooting happened shortly after 1 a.m. Monday at Roberts’ secluded home in a wooded section of Sabattus.
Sharon said Roberts told him the shooting followed weeks of custody disputes between Roberts and Mendoza. Their little girl is named Savanna.
Sharon said Roberts called him about 1:30 Monday morning, minutes after calling 911 to report the shooting.
According to Sharon, the shooting happened like this:
Mendoza called Roberts late Sunday night to say she was coming to his home to get their daughter.
Because Roberts believed Mendoza had taken a .38-caliber snub-nosed revolver sometime earlier from Roberts’ home, he met her in the house’s lower level with a pistol in his pocket.
Sharon said Roberts told him that Mendoza produced the .38 and said she was going to kill their daughter, kill Roberts and then kill herself.
“Then she turned to go into the house and he shot her,” Sharon said.
The lawyer said he doesn’t expect the state to indict Roberts in the case, likening the shooting to self-defense and defense of a third party.
Sharon said Mendoza had earlier kidnapped the couple’s daughter – Roberts has had custody of Savanna throughout the summer – and took her to California, where the child was secreted somewhere “500 miles from where (Mendoza) lived.”
He said Roberts followed them to California and hired several private investigators who eventually tracked the child down. Police there then enforced a court order and turned Savanna back over to Roberts, who returned to Maine with her.
She is staying with Roberts’ friends and relatives now, and Sharon said Roberts is staying temporarily with his father.
McCausland said state police are continuing their investigation into the shooting.
Investigators “gathered at the Gray barracks this morning to get their assignments and then fanned out to Sabattus and other locations,” McCausland said.
He said no charges in the shooting have been filed, and pointed out that the medical examiner’s ruling regarding homicide as the manner of death doesn’t always equate to murder.
He also said the fact that Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese joined investigators for a briefing Monday afternoon shouldn’t be seen as implying a crime had been committed.
“We always bring the attorney general and medical examiner’s offices in on these types of cases,” he said.
Mendoza, who had sought protection-from-abuse orders against Roberts on several occasions dating back to 2003, said in written statements supporting them that he had threatened her with harm. In an affidavit filed with 8th District Court last week, Mendoza wrote that Roberts “has put a gun to my head numerous times and I am afraid he or one of his friends will hurt me.”
State police Sgt. Walter Grzyb is heading up the shooting investigation.
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