Robert Stubbs had only about a minute left to live when the first police officer arrived at his home in Westbrook on April 21, 2011.

Stubbs was curled in a fetal position, face down in a pool of his own blood in the entrance of his home at 73 Central St., as Westbrook Detective Sgt. John Desjardins came through the door shortly after 10:26 p.m.

Desjardins testified Thursday in the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland during the third day of the murder trial of Tareek Hendricks, the New York man who is charged with fatally stabbing Stubbs during a fight in Stubbs’ home.

Desjardins told jurors that he first encountered Stubbs’ “hysterical” wife, Melissa, who let him in the door, which opened only partially because Stubbs lay in the way. He was bleeding from a knife wound in his side and Desjardins heard a gurgling noise from what he called a “sucking chest wound.”

“I was saying, ‘You’re going to be OK, Bobby, you’re going to be OK; he just got you in the guts,'” Desjardins recalled, though he told jurors he was unsure whether Robert Stubbs could hear him.

Desjardins said he got on his radio, calling for an ambulance crew that was on the way to “step on it.”

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But it was too late. Stubbs, 40, had stopped breathing. Desjardins said he got back on the radio to tell the ambulance crew to “tread lightly because this is going to be a crime scene.”

Hendricks, 32, is accused of stabbing Stubbs after Stubbs hit him with a baseball bat in a dispute between Hendricks, a crack cocaine dealer, and Stubbs, his drug customer, but details about what happened when and who provoked the fight have been unclear from witness testimony so far.

Hendricks has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and felony aggravated assault. He admitted to police he stabbed the couple, but claims it was done in self-defense after the Stubbses attacked him.

Police say Hendricks stabbed Stubbs repeatedly and then stabbed Melissa Stubbs twice after she had struck him with a chair before the two forced him out of their home.

Desjardins said Melissa Stubbs told police, while she was still hysterical moments after her husband’s death, that Hendricks, who she referred to as “BK,” had accused Robert Stubbs of “ripping him off” in a drug transaction.

Melissa Stubbs testified on each of the first three days of the trial, but made no mention of Hendricks accusing her husband of ripping him off.

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She said her husband had confronted Hendricks, and refused to give Hendricks rides to conduct other drug deals as Robert Stubbs had agreed to in exchange for crack cocaine.

Melissa Stubbs testified that both she and her husband had repeatedly told Hendricks to get out of their house, but one of Hendricks’ attorneys, Jon Gale, asked during cross-examination why her prior statements to police had conflicted on that point.

In early statements to police, Melissa Stubbs made no mention that she or her husband told Hendricks to leave before the stabbing. In later statements, she told police both of them had told Hendricks to leave.

“I don’t tell stories very well,” Melissa Stubbs testified on Wednesday. “I tell things kind of screwed up. I don’t mean to.”

Several of the Stubbses’ neighbors also testified Thursday that they heard loud sounds coming from the house that night that drew their attention.

“It was a very demanding voice. He wasn’t screaming or anything, but he was demanding. He wanted this person out,” said Johnny Price, who lived next door at 75 Central St. “Bobby was the one who really wanted this person out.”

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Brenda Shiffer testified that she lived across the street at the time and looked out the window shortly before 10:30 p.m. to see a woman that they later knew was Melissa Stubbs pushing a black man out the door of 73 Central St.

Shiffer said the man repeatedly banged on the door afterward and loudly demanded his possessions.

The question of when the Stubbses told Hendricks to leave could be key to the jury’s deliberations.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Marchese, who is prosecuting the case, said in her opening statement that Hendricks could have left without stabbing either Robert or Melissa Stubbs and that Robert Stubbs was within his legal rights to use a bat to get Hendricks out of his home once Hendricks had been told to leave.


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