AUBURN – The sign on the courthouse door hinted at what was inside.

“No badges, pins, colors, logos or insignia of any club or organization will be allowed in the courtroom,” the sign read.

The reason: the man on trial for murder in the shooting of his ex-girlfriend was once the leader of the local chapter of the Hells Angels.

Just inside the locked door to the Androscoggin County Superior Courthouse stood a metal detector and a conveyor X-ray machine that had sat dormant in the hallway all last year. On Monday, it was dusted off and put into action.

Security was at its tightest Monday for the trial of Daniel Roberts, 37, of Sabattus. He admitted shooting Melissa Mendoza, 29, of California in the back of the head early one morning in mid-August 2005. He claims he was protecting himself and their 2-year-old daughter Savanna as he and Mendoza feuded over her custody.

Ninety-three prospective jurors filed through the metal detector Monday morning before making their way into the courtroom. There, they mostly waited during jury selection, which dragged on all day.

After filling out a confidential survey in the morning, they met privately, one-by-one throughout the afternoon with prosecutors, defense lawyers, jury consultants, the defendant and Justice Joyce Wheeler in her chambers to answer questions about possible bias.

At the end of the day, the court had winnowed the pool in half. Today, both sides are expected to narrow the number to the final 12, plus alternates. Opening statements are expected to start after lunch.

Justice Wheeler told members of the jury pool that the trial was expected to take up to three weeks but could possibly last all month.

She asked how many people were familiar with some of the facts of the case. Fifty-one people stood. She asked how many people would experience “extreme hardship” if they were to serve on the jury in such a long trial. Twenty-seven people stood.

Roberts, who appeared in a dark gray suit and tie over a blue dress shirt, limped into the courtroom wearing a device that locked his knee straight under his pants. Wheeler had said last week she didn’t want to see any shackles.

Roberts was introduced to the full jury pool. Four people said they knew him. Three said they were unsure whether they could be impartial. Nobody stood when asked whether they knew Mendoza or her family.

Aside from the sign on the door, elevated court security is something Michael Coty would like to see become the norm in Auburn. Coty, the state judicial marshal for the state’s roughly 40 courtrooms, said Monday the tight security was strategic at the Roberts trial given factors in the case.

Manning metal detectors costs money, which is not in the court’s daily budget. It was only possible with the $100,000 in the security budget credited to Chief Justice Leigh Saufley, who’s made court security a top priority during her tenure, he said.

“Our hope is this will be the norm, not the exception,” Coty said. “So that hopefully we can keep weapons out of the courtroom.”

Such security details have been in place about 40 percent of the time at state courts in Portland, Coty said, but only about 5 percent of the time elsewhere.