AUGUSTA — The jury in a Monmouth man’s murder trial will hear a 90-minute recorded interview conducted by police the day after the violent slaying of Janice McDonald, 80.

Detectives interviewed Kenneth McDonald at the Winthrop Police Department on Aug. 25, 2009.

In this morning’s court session — the second day of McDonald’s trial in Kennebec County Superior Court — a bloody steak knife, a bloody handprint cut from a bedsheet, and photos of blood spattered on a wall and headboard all were brought in as evidence.

McDonald, 44, is accused of murdering his mother in the home they shared in Monmouth.

Maine State Police Detective Jason Richards testified he took photographs inside the Highland Terrace home that show a large pool of blood that had been under the head of 80-year-old Janice McDonald.

Other photos depicted the inside of the home’s bathroom, with blood located on a sink, towels, and clothing, and the steak knife which had a bent blade.

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The photographs were projected on a screen behind Richards so jurors could see them. He also identified some of the evidence from the scene, including a handprint in blood on the bedroom wall and on a bottom sheet.

“We cut out around that handprint,” Richards said. The cutting was sent to the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory, and on Tuesday the packaged item was handed to the judge as evidence.

On Monday, the deputy chief medical examiner testified that Janice McDonald died of sharp- and blunt-force trauma. Her body was discovered Aug. 24, 2009, after police were called to check on her welfare.

McDonald’s attorney, James Billings, has said McDonald killed his mother; however, Billings said it was a reaction to a lifetime of abuse and during an argument over whether McDonald could go on a vacation to the coast.

McDonald was located on the Maine coast the day after his mother’s body was found.

Clayton Stromsky, deputy with Cumberland County Sheriff’s  Department, testified Tuesday he found McDonald on Bailey Island sitting on a boulder changing his socks. McDonald was arrested that day and has been in custody since then.
 
 


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