Trial of man charged in 2020 killing outside Bangor nightclub will likely go to jury Monday
May 2—The murder trial of a Bangor man accused of stabbing an acquaintance to death last year in a nightclub parking lot most likely will go to the jury Monday.
Rayshaun Moore, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the death of Demetrius Snow, 25, of Bangor, who died of stab wounds shortly after 1 a.m. on Feb. 1, 2020, in the parking lot of the Half Acre Nightclub on Harlow Street.
Testimony in the trial began Monday at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor. The state is expected to rest its case Monday morning. The defense has said it would call just one witness.
A verdict could come later in the day.
Moore is not expected to take the stand in his own defense.
The prosecution maintains that Moore's slaying of Snow was an act of revenge because earlier in the evening Snow assaulted Moore in the Half Acre parking lot.
The defense claims that Kevin Brogdon Sr., 29, of Bangor took Moore's knife away from him and stabbed Snow. Brogdon took the stand Wednesday and denied that.
Security cameras at Half Acre captured the fight between Moore and Snow and the aftermath of the stabbing, but did not show who wielded the knife. The stabbing took place on a snowbank outside the camera's range. Snow was able to get up and stagger into view before collapsing.
The trial has been plagued with technical problems due, in part, to the limitations imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Because of social distancing requirements, the trial requires three courtrooms — one where the trial is conducted, one where the jury gathers and deliberates, and a third where the public can view the courtroom proceedings on large screens.
In the courtroom where the trial is conducted, jurors sit in the gallery and masked witnesses testify from a chair in the jury box using a portable standing microphone. That microphone distorts many witnesses' voices and makes it hard for them to be understood in the courtroom and in the room where members of the public — including Snow's family members — are viewing the trial.
When police interviews were played in the courtroom Thursday, they were unintelligible in the public room. Victim/witness advocates provided copies of a transcript of detectives' interview with Moore to the Snow's family members. Transcripts also were provided to jurors, whom the public cannot see.
In addition to the problem of understanding witnesses, the sound feed from the courtroom to the screens in the public room went silent several times during the trial.
Moore's trial is the first murder trial convened in Maine since last fall.
If convicted, he faces between 25 years and life in prison.
