ALFRED — The photograph showed the machete resting on top of a plastic trash can in the camper where Bruce Akers lived in Limington. The blade was painted red, but it also was marked with dark stains.

That weapon was a key and recurring object on the second day of Akers’ trial on a murder charge in the death of Douglas Flint.

The two men lived next to each other on Ossipee Trail. When family members reported Flint missing in June 2016, police found his body under a pile of deer hides and debris on Akers’ land.

Dr. Mark Flomenbaum, the state’s chief medical examiner, testified Tuesday that Flint died from more than a dozen chop wounds to his face and neck that severed his spinal cord and nearly decapitated him.

Assistant Attorney General Bud Ellis held up the machete, which had been collected from the camper on the same day police found Flint’s body.

“Certainly, that could do it,” Flomenbaum said.

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The trial began Monday in the York County Superior Court, and the jury already has heard from more than a dozen witnesses, including investigators from law enforcement and the state’s crime lab.

The state rested its case at the end of the day Tuesday.

Maine State Police detectives testified about photographs of both properties, including the machete in the camper and the area where a police dog detected Flint’s body. A scientist from the state’s crime lab identified Flint’s blood on the machete and on Akers’ boots.

Kristine Hanly, one of the attorneys representing Akers, focused less on the bloodstains on the machete than the absence of another bloodstain. Flomenbaum testified that Flint lost a significant amount of blood when he died, but photos of the camper and other areas on the property did not identify the spot where he was killed.

She asked Detective Larry Rose about the items he found in the camper and tested for preliminary indications of human blood.

“And the only one that reacted was the machete?” she asked.

“That’s correct,” Rose answered.

The defense will have the opportunity to present witnesses Wednesday.

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