AUBURN – Both the defense and the prosecution rested Friday in the murder trial of Daniel Roberts.

Roberts did not take the stand.

His lawyer, Leonard Sharon, said the evidence, including a 911 tape the night Melissa Mendoza was shot, “all captured in his voice what happened. I think the jury’s heard everything they need to hear.”

Roberts, 37, of Sabattus, is accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend Mendoza, 29, of California in his garage on Aug. 15, 2005. Roberts said Mendoza had a gun and threatened to kill him and their 2-year-old daughter, Savanna, before he shot Mendoza in the back of the head with a .38-caliber handgun from about two feet away.

The couple was embroiled in a bitter custody battle over the child.

Friday morning’s testimony at Androscoggin County Superior Court featured the defense’s crime scene expert, who took aim at the prosecution’s theory: that Melissa Mendoza’s hands were full – juggling a handbag and a Pepsi bottle – when she was killed.

Peter DeForest, a professor of criminalistics at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, said the evidence isn’t strong enough to say what Mendoza was doing when she was shot.

DeForest worked for the prosecution in the O.J. Simpson trial and for the Goldman family in the civil suit that followed.

Last week, the state’s expert, Tom Bevel, testified that Mendoza was likely holding a purse in her right hand and a Pepsi bottle in her left when she was shot. That would make it unlikely that she was holding a gun.

Bevel, a crime scene reconstruction analyst from Oklahoma, said he reviewed investigative reports, crime scene photos, autopsy records and interviews before arriving at his conclusion.

He said Mendoza was either standing or taking a step, but not moving quickly – as if to kill her daughter – when she was shot. He noted she fell on her haunches rather than with her legs stretched out.

Like Bevel last week, DeForest said Friday that he’d read lab and test reports, reviewed physical evidence and examined crime scene photos. His analysis also included the gun, which carried none of Mendoza’s DNA, according to tests.

DeForest said Mendoza might have touched it without leaving DNA behind.

“The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” DeForest said.

The defense rested soon after.

In rebuttal, the state presented a one-minute silent video of Mendoza during an interview with a Lewiston police officer about a week before she was shot. Deputy Attorney General William Stokes refused to say what the video was supposed to show or how it rebutted the defense’s assertions.

Closing arguments are expected Monday.