PORTLAND – Jeffrey Dolloff’s blood was found on six of 11 spots examined on the clothes his wife was wearing the night he was severely beaten with a softball bat, according to testimony at Linda Dolloff’s trial in Cumberland County Superior Court this morning.

A DNA analyst said she found Jeffrey Dolloff’s blood on two of the six spots examined on Linda Dolloff’s pants and on four of the five spots examined on her shirt.

Prosecutors contend that Linda Dolloff, upset over the couple’s impending divorce, beat her husband last April 12 in the couple’s Standish home, then shot herself and reported a home invasion to cover up the assault. They have charged her with attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault and filing a false report.

Linda Dolloff said an intruder beat her husband and then shot her before fleeing.

In addition to the evidence on the clothing, Christine Waterhouse, a forensic analyst for the Maine State Police crime lab, said she found Linda Dolloff’s DNA on two spots on the grip of the softball bat used to beat Jeffrey Dolloff and on three of five spots examined on the .22-caliber handgun that was used to shoot Linda Dolloff. However, Waterhouse said she didn’t find Linda Dolloff’s DNA on the trigger of the gun. There wasn’t enough material to make an identification of the person whose DNA she found on the trigger, Waterhouse said, but she was able to determine that it was a male’s genetic material.

Waterhouse also said she found DNA from Linda Dolloff under the fingernails of Jeffrey Dolloff’s right hand and the DNA of both Dolloffs on a wine glass next to the hot tub in a bathroom of the house. Linda Dolloff said she and her husband shared wine in the tub and made love before going to sleep in separate bedrooms on the night of the attack, but Jeffrey Dolloff said he remembers nothing from the morning of the day before the assault until he woke up in a hospital weeks later.

Just before lunch, a computer forensic expert took the stand and said he examined two computers taken from the Dolloff home and was asked by State Police detectives to look for a novel that Linda Dolloff was writing. Other witnesses have said she was writing a murder mystery, but the testimony of David Brule was halted for a break before he said whether he found the file containing the beginning of the book.


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