PARIS – The trial of a Sumner man accused of murdering two people in July has been delayed for at least a month at the request of prosecutors.

Maine’s Deputy Attorney General William Stokes filed a motion to continue the trial for 32-year-old Duane Christopher Waterman to at least the week of June 8. Earlier this month, Justice Roland Cole set the preliminary start date of Waterman’s trial for May 11.

Stokes stated in his motion that the wife of Detective Scott Gosselin, the state’s primary investigator, is expecting a child in late April.

“The attorney for the state requires the assistance of the primary investigator in preparation for trial, and his absence because of obvious family need would be highly detrimental to the state’s case,” Stokes argues.

The motion was not opposed by John Jenness Jr., Waterman’s attorney, and it was granted on Wednesday.

Waterman is accused of killing Timothy Mayberry, 50, of 89 Tuelltown Road, West Paris and Todd Smith, 43, of Paris, at Mayberry’s home on July 25. Both men died of multiple gunshot wounds and were found at Mayberry’s house July 26; Mayberry was outside; Smith inside.

According to a police affidavit, Waterman indicated that Mayberry supplied him and others with Oxycontin pills. He said he owed Mayberry between $1,500 and $1,800 over a drug deal involving a third party who refused to pay.

According to the sworn statement from Gosselin, two spent .380-caliber shell casings were found inside Mayberry’s house. The casings came from the same manufacturer of .380 unspent bullets found at Waterman’s house at 30 Front St. in Sumner, according to the Maine State Police crime lab.