Lt. David Hall was in the kitchen of a Standish home on June 16, 2021, when he heard other Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies shout “10-48” – the code for a dead body.

Officers had just kicked down the front door because they were told a woman inside had been shot. Amanda Brown, 29, was found upstairs. She was cold to the touch, according to court records.

Her boyfriend, Brandon Libby, 36, would later tell police that Brown had been dead since June 14, court records say.

Libby, who is charged with murder in connection with Brown’s death, appeared in Cumberland County Superior Court on Friday afternoon as attorneys argued over what evidence could be used in his trial.

He sat quietly as a video played of Hall and other officers entering his Standish home more than two years ago. Officers had their guns out and were repeatedly shouting “sheriff’s office” as they passed some clutter in the kitchen, a dog food bowl and children’s toys. The couple had two young children.

Libby was arrested about four months later after a direct indictment and pleaded not guilty to murder on Nov. 8, 2021. He is scheduled for trial in June and is being held at the Cumberland County Jail.

His attorneys, Matthew Crockett and Robert Andrews, asked a judge to rule that evidence from Libby’s home, obtained after officers broke down his door, cannot be shown to jurors because it was obtained without a search warrant. Superior Justice MaryGay Kennedy did not issue a ruling Friday.

Crockett and Andrews are also asking the court to toss out statements Libby made to Maine State Police detectives while he was at the hospital on June 16, hours before they told Libby he had a right to remain silent and a right to an attorney. His lawyers said police intentionally delayed reading him his Miranda rights, even though he was already in police custody.

“From our perspective, Miranda is something that has to be read as soon as possible,” Andrews said.

It is not clear from court records what statements Libby made; the records only say he “spontaneously volunteered information about what happened to Amanda.”

Libby was taken to a hospital in Sanford that afternoon. The Maine State Police Tactical Team had been called to North Waterboro, where he had barricaded himself inside his ex-fiancée’s home. His family was worried he would hurt himself, according to court records.

Prosecutors argued the evidence collected from Libby’s home and his statements at the hospital are fair game – deputies were justified in entering the home because they thought there was a chance Brown was still alive and needed medical attention, said Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber.

He argued that the only information sheriff’s deputies in Standish had “was that Amanda Brown had been shot in the stomach.”

“They had a duty to immediately enter the home to check on her condition,” he said.

Macomber said Libby’s hospital statements were delivered without any prodding from police, and that Miranda rights weren’t necessary before an interrogation began.

But Libby’s lawyers believe that sheriff’s deputies knew Brown was already dead, making their forced entry unconstitutional. And they said Libby should have been read his rights sooner because he was in custody and officers were recording him.

Detective Lauren Edstrom, who was with Libby at the hospital, told the court she had a recording device in case Libby said something relevant to an investigation.

“Would it be reasonable to agree that you were recording because you hoped he would make statements?” Andrews said.

“That’s not what I said,” Edstrom said. “It was in case he made any statements.”

Libby later agreed to be interviewed by police and was read his rights. He was released from the hospital that night.

Libby’s family initially told police that the couple had gotten into a fight and Brown pointed a gun at Libby. They said he shot her in the stomach while trying to push the firearm away.

A few days after Brown was found dead, her mother, Jeanine Brown, accused Libby of killing her daughter in a protection from abuse order filed on behalf of the couple’s two children, who were 2 and 3 years old at the time.

In the filing, Jeanine Brown said the children were home when Libby shot their mother and then fled. She alleged Libby had been physically and mentally abusive and that he drank hard liquor daily.

“I am in fear of my life and safety (and those) of my grandchildren,” Jeanine Brown wrote in a June 21 affidavit requesting the temporary protection order. “On June 15 I believe he (Brandon) shot and killed my daughter in their home with both children present. Brandon Libby is stating self-defense.”

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