PORTLAND (AP) – A 48-year-old martial arts expert accused of beating his girlfriend to death in a Portland hotel room is scheduled to go on trial Monday on a murder charge in Cumberland County Superior Court.

David Haraden has been held in the county jail since his arrest last January in the slaying of Maxine Witham, 35. Her body was found Jan. 4 a room at the Eastland Hotel, where the couple had stopped on their return trip from Massachusetts to Rockport.

Police estimated that Witham had been dead for at least 24 hours, and a medical examiner found that she died of trauma to vital organs, apparently the result of a beating.

Haraden gave several versions of how Witham died, according to authorities, and said in one interview that a young man entered the room and beat her. Haraden, who has a black belt in tae kwon do, said he pursued the unknown assailant but was beaten up when he got onto the street.

Police said Haraden made telephone calls from the hotel in which he disclosed that Witham was dead. One recipient of that information notified police, who found Haraden in the room with the victim.

Haraden had been romantically involved with Witham for about two years and had been living with her in her Rockport home.

He was arrested in Rockport on an assault charge against Haraden linked to a domestic dispute, but the charge was later dismissed. The couple were in Portland on their return from Newburyport, Mass., where Haraden had been convicted of assault on an officer and was required to appear in court in late December for a probation revocation hearing.

A Probate Court judge in Rockland last May denied a claim by Haraden that he should inherit Witham’s house. Haraden had produced a hand-written note he said was Witham’s last will and testament, but the judge named her father as her heir.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

AP-ES-11-26-05 1101EST

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