Brandon Libby listens as Superior Court Justice Thomas McKeon declares a mistrial Thursday after the jury announced it could not reach an unanimous decision. Libby was charged with murder in the death of his girlfriend Amanda Brown in Standish in 2021. He said the shooting was accidental. Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

Brandon Libby stood with tears in his eyes Thursday afternoon as he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend, Amanda Brown.

Amanda Brown Photo courtesy Jeanine Brown

The 37-year-old Standish man agreed to serve the maximum 30 years for killing Brown on the night of June 14, 2021, at their home on Dow Road while their two children were downstairs.

He had faced a charge of intentional or knowing murder but insisted her death was an accident and turned down earlier plea deals from prosecutors. He waited three years in jail for a trial. A 12-member Cumberland County jury heard about 4 ½ days of arguments and deliberated for nearly as long, but was ultimately unable to reach a verdict.

The jury had to wrestle with conflicting theories about what happened that night. Prosecutors said it was unlikely the death was an accident, citing testimony from a detective who reconstructed the shooting. But the defense’s expert witness challenged that analysis.

It’s possible the debate struck a nerve with the jury. The jurors sent back several questions during their deliberations, asking for better definitions of reasonable doubt and walking back through the reenactment.

After the stoic group filed into courtroom just before 3 p.m. on Thursday, they individually told the judge they were deadlocked. It was unlikely that more time would yield a unanimous conclusion, they said.

Superior Court Justice Thomas McKeon then declared a mistrial and thanked the jurors for their diligent work.

“You’ve done your service well and true, you’ve worked very hard at this,” McKeon said before excusing them.

Justice Thomas McKeon talks to jurors on Wednesday, after they first announced that they could not reach an unanimous decision in Brandon Libby’s murder trial in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland. Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

Afterward, Libby agreed to enter a guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter – also a Class A crime – to avoid being retried on the murder charge. His sentencing will occur sometime next year, at which time the murder charge will be dropped.

After court adjourned Thursday, one of Libby’s attorneys, Matthew Crockett, said that although the jury was unable to resolve the case, the guilty plea was the “best result for (Libby) to take accountability.”

He said Libby is remorseful and the case has been difficult for him and both his and Brown’s families. He declined to testify during the trial.

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office did not return a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

‘IT DEFIES COMMON SENSE’

Brown was 30 years old and had two young children with Libby. She worked as a case manager, helping families in need navigate social services for children.

The state’s case had focused on Libby’s “tumultuous” relationship with Brown and his actions after her death, including his decision not to call 911. His attorneys have said he was in shock after the shooting, and that his failure to call 911 wasn’t evidence of his guilt.

Police found Brown’s body in her bedroom two days after she was killed. She had a gunshot wound to her stomach. Libby was taken into custody that afternoon after creating a standoff with police at his ex-fiancée’s home in Waterboro, but he wasn’t charged until about four months later.

Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese looks at Brandon Libby’s attorneys on Thursday while addressing the stipulations of the plea deal she agreed to after jurors announced they could not reach a unanimous decision on the murder charge against Libby. Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

Libby has said Brown pointed the gun at him during an argument that night and that it went off after he tried swatting it from her grasp. After the gun went off, Libby told police, he tucked Brown into their bed. He told one detective that her dying words were “I love you” and “tell the kids I love them.”

When Brown’s mother texted him the day after the shooting, worried because she hadn’t heard from her daughter, he lied and said the household was sick. He called the kids out of day care and brought them to Waterboro, where his other two sons and their mother lived. Brown’s body remained in the house.

“It defies common sense. He keeps her there for one reason, one reason only, and that is to buy time,” Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese said. “To come up with a story, to try and make it look like an accident.”

Crockett said his client was in shock from the shooting and suicidal. Natasha Carruthers, with whom Libby shared his other two sons, testified Thursday that she thought Libby was suicidal. Police have said Libby’s brother and mother were also concerned.

“He hoped that he’d wake up from this nightmare at some point. … And so yes, he wanted time – not to cover up with a cover story,” Crockett said. “He wanted time to spend with his children before he planned to kill himself.”

ALLEGED ‘TUNNEL VISION’

Crockett said in closing arguments Tuesday that he felt the state’s case was not only entirely circumstantial, but that it was the result of a one-sided, tunnel-vision investigation by state police.

Throughout trial, Libby’s attorneys have questioned why the state didn’t look for gunshot residue on Brown’s hands, or swab the entirety of the gun to look for her DNA. They said the state refused to look for any evidence that would defy its quickly established narrative that Libby was guilty.

The defense also argued that Maine State Police Detective Larry Rose’s reconstruction of the shooting was “overly simplistic” and failed to take into account how Libby and Brown were positioned, and Brown’s physical abilities (including how flexible her wrists might have been).

Brandon Libby’s attorney, Matthew Crockett, looks at his client after explaining a question from Justice Thomas McKeon. Gregory Rec/Portland Press Heral

On Monday, they called on forensic researcher Brooke Weinger Kammrath, who testified that Rose’s analysis was not scientific.

“In their rush to judgment, the state completely disregarded the truth,” said Crockett. “The truth is that what happened on June 14, 2021, was a terrible, terrible accident.”

But the defense’s most damning piece of evidence was an accidental recording of former Detective Abbe Chabot making jokes about an interview she conducted with Lilo Libby, Brandon Libby’s mother, the day they found Brown’s body.

Chabot, who retired from the state police in March 2022, met with Lilo Libby on the morning of June 16, 2021. Lilo Libby said she had spoken with her son that morning, and she told Chabot that he said the shooting was an accident.

In that recorded interview, Chabot promised police would consider all of the evidence. But she forgot to turn off her recorder afterward and the device captured a conversation she had less than an hour later with other officers, laughing about how little she believed Libby’s story.

On the stand Tuesday, Chabot chalked the conversation up to “gallows humor,” a “standard coping mechanism” for dealing with trauma every day.

Marchese, the prosecutor, pointed out that Chabot’s role in the entire case was limited to the interview with Libby’s mother. She argued Libby’s team was “cherry picking” issues to cast doubt on what was a thorough investigation, one in which they waited four months before arresting Libby.

But Crockett had hoped the jury would see something more in Chabot’s tapes.

“They don’t want you to know how the sausage is made,” Crockett said. “They don’t want you to know that at the beginning of this case they concluded Brandon Libby was guilty.”