BANGOR – A forensic chemist with the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory testified Friday that she examined the clothes that Rory Holland was wearing when he killed two brothers in a confrontation in Biddeford last year, and found no tears, rips or stains on them.

Testifying in Holland’s murder trial, Michelle Fleury also said she noticed fibers on fingernail clippings taken from one of the brothers, Gage Greene, but did not test them to determine whether they had come from Holland’s clothing or from his body.

Holland, 56, of Biddeford, contends that he shot 19-year-old Gage Greene and 21-year-old Derek Greene in self-defense outside his home on South Street on June 30, 2009.

Eyewitnesses testified this week that Gage Greene pushed Holland seconds before Holland pulled out a gun and shot him in the chest.

Derek Greene was arrested five weeks before the shootings and charged with assaulting Holland.

As the first week of testimony wrapped up in the Penobscot Judicial Center, the Attorney General’s Office put on the stand several employees of the state crime lab.

One expert testified that she found no “useable” fingerprints on the gun that police say was used in the shootings.

Evidence was admitted, however, that indicated Holland’s DNA was found on the gun and on a separate loaded magazine that police found in his home after the shootings.

Police found the gun on the roof of Holland’s home, according to earlier testimony.

Also Friday, Deborah White of Biddeford testified that after Derek Greene was arrested and charged with assaulting Holland on May 12, 2009, she heard Holland threaten the Greene brothers and their friends, saying he “knew where they lived and they would get theirs.”

The shooting occurred at 1 a.m. on June 30, 2009. The Greene brothers and their friends had been drinking and smoking marijuana that night, according to testimony.

As they walked past Holland’s home, they saw him standing on the sidewalk. Witnesses say Gage Greene ran across the road, told Holland to go inside his house and pushed him when he refused. Eyewitnesses told the jury that Holland immediately pulled a gun from the waistband of his pants and fired a shot into Gage Greene’s chest.

Greene died almost immediately, according to testimony on Thursday from a deputy medical examiner.

When Derek Greene ran across the street toward his brother and Holland, Holland fired several shots, three of which hit Derek Greene. He died before he arrived at Maine Medical Center in Portland by ambulance.

Holland’s trial was moved to Penobscot County at the request of his lawyers, Clifford Strike and Amanda Doherty, who argued that Holland is too well known in the area to get a fair trial in York County.

Holland ran twice for mayor of Biddeford, and has sued the city and its police department, alleging racial discrimination. In the 1970s, he was convicted of the attempted murder of his 16-month-old daughter.

Lisa Marchese, the assistant attorney general who is prosecuting the case, told jurors during opening remarks Monday that Holland didn’t like the Greene brothers, and waited for them outside his home with a loaded gun when he easily could have retreated into his home if he truly felt his life was in danger.

Under Maine law, deadly force is justified only when a defendant believes that such force is necessary to protect his or her life.

Neither of the Greenes was armed when they were shot, according to testimony.

Justice Ronald Cole is presiding over the trial. The state expects to finish presenting its case on Monday. Strike has not said whether Holland will testify in his own defense.

Holland will face 25 years to life in prison if he is convicted.

 

Copy the Story Link