– TREVOR MAXWELL

Staff Writer

PORTLAND – A judge has given Linda Dolloff’s lawyers more time to file their motion for acquittal or a new trial.

Daniel Lilley and Karen Wolfram now have until July 11 to submit the motion to Superior Court Justice Joyce Wheeler.

Dolloff was convicted May 11 of attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault and making a false public report. The jury found that Dolloff, 48, beat her husband with a softball bat, then shot herself in the right hip in an attempt to make the crime look like a home invasion. Her trial lasted nearly three weeks in Cumberland County Superior Court.

Jeffrey Dolloff, 54, was beaten so severely on the head that the responding medical workers and police officers didn’t believe he would survive. Several bones in his face, including some orbital bones surrounding his eyes, were broken by multiple blows from the bat.

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Prosecutors told the jury that Linda Dolloff was desperate over the couple’s impending divorce, and that she snapped on April 12, 2009, because Jeffrey Dolloff told her that he planned to invite a woman to the house so she could be introduced to his family. Jeffrey and Linda Dolloff were still living together as they worked out the final details of a divorce.

Lilley said there was no way that Linda Dolloff had the physical strength to carry out such an attack. He said investigators were too quick to blame the wife, and didn’t pursue her claim that an intruder had come into the home.

Dolloff will face as much as 30 years in prison when she is sentenced later this year. No date has been set.

A psychologist from the State Forensic Service is scheduled to examine Dolloff on June 15. The findings could affect the sentence.

Lilley says Wheeler should acquit Dolloff or order a new trial because the state didn’t present enough evidence to support the guilty verdict.

Under state rules, a motion to acquit is supposed to be filed within 10 days of a verdict. Lilley, whose request for an extension was granted, said he needs two months because he must review the trial transcript, which won’t be available before next week.

Staff Writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at:

tmaxwell@pressherald.com


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