PORTLAND — Linda Dolloff wrote that she felt she was running out of options in the weeks leading up to her allegedly severely beating her estranged husband with a baseball bat and then shooting herself to make it look like the couple was victimized by a home invasion, prosecutors said today.

Dolloff, 48, is charged with attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault and making a false report in connection with the beating of Jeffrey Dolloff last April in Standish

Additional Photos

Linda Dolloff, charged with attempted murder of her husband, Jeffrey, at their home in Standish in April, attends a hearing on her bail in June in Superior Court in Portland. Domestic violence File photo/The Portland Press Herald

In an opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Anne Berlind said Linda Dolloff had agreed to terms of a divorce with Jeffrey Dolloff last year, but had hoped for a reconciliation. She was supposed to move out of Dolloff’s main house within a couple of months and into an attached apartment, Berlind said, and would receive $100,000 as part of the divorce settlement.

But Jeffrey Dolloff asked her to leave for a weekend so he could bring another woman home to meet his family, Berlind said. Linda Dolloff refused – even turning down her husband’s offer to buy her a cruise – and said she wanted to meet the woman. That visit was supposed to take place the weekend following Easter, which is when Dolloff was assaulted.

Berlind said Linda Dolloff’s home invasion story doesn’t add up because the gun that was used to shoot Linda Dolloff belonged to Jeffrey Dolloff and was in Dolloff’s bureau, underneath an envelope containing $1,500 in cash, which wasn’t taken. Jeffrey Dolloff’s wallet, also containing several hundred dollars, was on top of that bureau and was also left, Berlind said.

Linda Dolloff’s attorney, Daniel Lilley, suggested the prosecutor’s timeline for the 3 a.m. attack doesn’t line up and said police officers saw someone in a downstairs window of the Dolloff home when they answered her 911 call. He contended that Dolloff was upstairs at that time.

Lilley also said it was unlikely that Linda Dolloff could have shot herself and avoided getting powder burns from the muzzle of the gun. He also said that if Linda Dolloff wanted to kill her husband, she could have used one of the many guns in the house, rather than a baseball bat.

The trial is expected to last five to eight days, Cumberland County Superior Court Justice Joyce Wheeler said.

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