PARIS — Bloodstain patterns, and phone calls made by Scott Libby before his death, dominated the second day of testimony Wednesday at the murder trial of Agostino J. Samson.

Six state witnesses took the stand in Oxford County Superior Court, with a Maine State Police detective twice testifying about his role in the investigation. Samson, 23, is charged in the death of 25-year-old Scott Libby of Raymond, who died of blunt-force trauma to the head and neck in Bethel in February.

Libby’s body was found in his car after it was hit by a freight train
and pushed several hundred feet down the tracks near the Barker Road
crossing at about 2:45 a.m. on Feb. 20. Detective Herbert Leighton testified that court-ordered records showed that calls to and from Libby’s cell phone were being relayed off towers in Bethel on the evening of Feb. 19.

Leighton said Libby’s calls on Feb. 19 originated in the Windham area, where he worked as an accountant with H&R Block, and proceeded north later in the evening. He said Libby made two brief phone calls to Samson at 4:07 p.m. and 5:26 p.m., and that Samson called Libby at 10:08 p.m., 11:09 p.m. and 12:06 a.m.

The records also showed that Libby made calls to a Rhode Island man and to Paul McCarthy of Malden, Mass., and received a call from David Clark of Bridgton during the evening. McCarthy testified Monday that Libby told him he would be collecting on a $400 loan to “A.J.” in exchange for a watch and bracelet he’d been holding as collateral.

Nancy Maynard, Libby’s mother, said Samson was employed as a part-time employee at a greenhouse Libby owned during the summer of 2008. Maynard said Libby told her on the evening of Feb. 19 that he was going to see Samson to exchange the collateral for the money.

Clark said he met Libby on MySpace but never in person. He said he talked with Libby for about 45 minutes on the evening of Feb. 19, and that Libby said he was driving to Bethel to collect on a loan.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Maurice Porter, Leighton said there had been no confirmation of where McCarthy and the Rhode Island man were when they spoke to Libby by phone. Leighton also said that Samson agreed to turn over his phone and that none of Libby’s DNA was found on it.

Porter said some of the calls listed in the records did not show up in a billing statement for Libby’s phone. Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson suggested that the calls listed on the billing statement could be different from those in the court-ordered records based on the way billing is done.

Leighton also said he determined that bloodstains found inside Libby’s car were inconsistent with those that would have been caused when the train hit. Libby suffered several blows to the head and neck and the train would have caused only one impact, he said.

He said the bloodstain patterns in the car suggested Libby was beaten with a blunt object inside the car.

Bloodstain patterns found on Westwood Road, about three-tenths of a mile from the Bethel hostel where Samson was staying at the time, suggested that some of the injuries may have been inflicted outside the vehicle, Leighton said. A resident of the road, Odd Lyngholm, testified that he found a global-positioning system, a CD holder and Libby’s business cards near the site.

Leighton said police saw bruises on Samson’s hands and arms, some of which appeared to be recent. He said Samson told police that a box of puree fell on his hand at work but later changed his story to say he had punched a refrigerator at work.

Leighton also testified that police did not find a winter coat in Samson’s room at the hostel. Benson has proposed that Samson disposed of his coat after Libby’s murder as a way of getting rid of evidence.

Defense lawyer Porter suggested that Samson’s hands may have been injured by both the falling box and punching the refrigerator. He also questioned whether an attacker would have been able to swing a blunt object with enough force to seriously injure Libby in the interior of the car.

“They would have been restricted but not seriously restricted,” Leighton said.

Ryan Inman, an employee at the Matterhorn Ski Bar where Samson worked as a cook, said Samson owned a blue coat that was part of a uniform he had from past employment on a cruise ship. He said he drove Samson to the hostel on the evening of Feb. 19.

“He seemed excited to see his friend and get his watch back,” Inman said.

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Agostino Samson, 23, is escorted into Oxford County Superior Court on Thursday, March 4 2009 to answer a charge of murder in connection with the death of Scott Libby in Bethel on Feb. 20.