James Peters of Mexico, seated, speaks Monday with defense lawyer James Howaniec at Oxford County Superior Court in Paris on the first day of Peters’ trial. He is charged with intentionally or knowingly endangering the welfare of his fiancee in 2021. Joe Charpentier/Sun Journal

PARIS — Medical personnel testified Monday in Oxford County Superior Court that 83-year-old Joyce Brackett was covered in feces and urine, had severe bed sores and was suffering from multiple injuries when they examined her at the home she shared with her fiancé, James Peters, 71, of Mexico in 2021.

Peters’ trial, on charges of intentional or knowing endangering the welfare of a dependent person, opened Monday before Justice Maria Woodman.

“The evidence will show that from the outside, looking in, nothing seemed particularly amiss at 351 Main St.” Assistant Attorney General Charles Boyle said in his opening statement, “… but there’s less evidence to show what exactly was going inside the home at the time we’re concerned with. You’ll hear that Joyce and Peters hadn’t had any social visitor in about six years. Also, at the time of her death, Joyce hadn’t visited her primary care doctor in at least a year and a half.”

Peters called 911 on Feb. 10, 2021, to report the severe decline of Brackett’s health, saying she had been bedridden for six weeks, witnesses testified.

MedCare paramedic Christopher Grant said on the witness stand that he arrived at Joyce Brackett’s home and was met by an anxious Peters at the curb. Peters said his “honey” was in a lot of pain.

Minutes later, when Peters showed Grant and his EMT partner into a bedroom, there was the stench of old feces and urine. When he and his partner observed her from head to toes “we just found more and more,” he said. “We could see teeth … through black necrotic tissue” from a hole in her jaw. She had a soiled nightgown on and her “hips, legs and wrists were bruised.”

Brackett was semiconscious and could only moan and groan and pulled away whenever touched, Grant said. “She was in a lot of pain.”

Davita Briggs, an registered nurse in the emergency room at Rumford Hospital, testified that Brackett came to the hospital “very weak, soiled, filthy, thin and malnourished.” She had old feces on her body and clothes, open wounds in her hip, tailbone and left breast, and a wound to her left ear.

Dr. Ian Dodson added that Peters told him Brackett had not been washed in weeks and had not spoken in at least three weeks due to the facial wound. Dodson said he observed a deformity in her right wrist, and he could “barely see her skin under the excrement,” he told the court.

Dodson said Peters told him he tried to clean her as often as possible, and she was “very stubborn and refused multiple times” when he suggested going to the hospital.

Dr. Carl Daniel added that had Brackett been admitted to the hospital around the time she became bedridden, medical intervention would have helped.

After an initial assessment at Rumford Hospital, Brackett was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland. Before she was transported, doctors discovered a multitude of injuries and ailments. The hole in her face was caused by an infection that left her jawbone in two pieces. They also discovered eight rib fractures, kidney failure and many bruises consistent with staying in one position for an extended period.

She died three days later at the Portland hospital.

Charges were brought against Peters a month later.

Brackett’s relationship with Peters followed the 2012 death of husband, Philip Brackett Sr.

Joyce Brackett and Peters lived in her Mexico home for some six years and she had no contact with her son, Philip Brackett Jr., and only long-distance contact with her daughter, Julie Bradley.

Bradley said that over the six years the couple lived in her mother’s home, they conversed over the phone occasionally and emailed back and forth, but they never saw each other face to face.

In the year leading up to her mother’s death, Bradley said she could never reach her mother on the phone and emails she received from her mother changed style; she began using emojis and referred to people by the wrong names.

Bradley said she tried six or seven times to see her mother in person, but no one would answer the door.

Bradley said she confronted Peters the day her mother was admitted to Rumford Hospital, and he admitted to having sent the emails himself.

Peters’ trial is scheduled to continue Tuesday morning.

Assistant Attorney General Suzanne Russell is the other prosecutor in the case.

Peters is represented by James Howaniec and Mitchell Roberge.