Lawyer Allan Lobozzo stands in court Monday next to his client, Albert Flick, who is on trial for the stabbing death of Kimberly Dobbie outside a Lewiston laundromat last year. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
AUBURN — The jury watched Monday as the man pictured in the video wearing a light blue shirt walked down the sidewalk, stopped and turned, then repeatedly made a thrusting motion before he was kicked to the sidewalk by another man who hustled out of a nearby laundromat.
Assistant Attorney General Bud Ellis told the jury Albert Flick, 77, stabbed Kimberly Dobbie, 48, at least 11 times with a pink-handled paring knife with a 5-inch blade on July 15, 2018. She died from blood loss.
In the video, her twin 11-year-old sons could be seen running along the sidewalk to where she was slain.
The jury had watched earlier Monday in Androscoggin County Superior Court as Flick, dressed in a white shirt, had shopped at a local Walmart two days before. He could be seen on surveillance video going to the home goods department, selecting two of the pink-handled knives and paying $2.24 in cash for each at the checkout.
Another video viewed by the jury showed Flick approaching Dobbie at a Dunkin’ Donuts on Main Street in Lewiston earlier that morning a year ago. He could be seen standing around while she and her sons apparently had breakfast.
He then followed them to a laundromat on Sabattus Street, where he appeared to be pacing inside and outside before attacking Dobbie at about 10 a.m. She had been on her cellphone, sitting on steps leading to the sidewalk at the end of the laundromat building when he crouched over her. She appears to have pushed him back before his arm begins a stabbing motion over her.
Flick had concealed one of the knives in the small of his back and one in his pants pocket, Ellis told the jury. He plucked the one from behind and unsheathed it before stabbing Dobbie.
Dennis Fisher, who was in Maine from New Hampshire on business, had just opened the door to a dryer at the laundromat when he heard Dobbie’s screams coming from outside, he testified Monday.
“It was loud, real loud,” he said. She was “just screaming: ‘Help! Help! Help!'”
He ran to where Flick stood over Dobbie.
“I drop-kicked him,” Fisher said.
The knife flew into the air, Fisher said, and he used his foot to pin Flick’s neck against the sidewalk.
Another man tended to Dobbie, holding her and trying to put pressure on her wounds.
“She had a terrified look on her face,” Fisher said.
She laid back on the stairs, her breath giving a death rattle, he said, wiping tears from his eyes and cheeks.
Eric Drake said he ran to Dobbie when he heard her screams.
“It was really bad, I mean, I knew something was wrong,” he said.
“She was bleeding everywhere,” Drake said, adding he called 911 as he held her.
Elliot Meserve, who lived in an apartment overlooking the stairs on which Dobbie was stabbed, said he could see Flick stabbing her. She had told him to leave her alone, Meserve testified.
He remembered the look on Flick’s face as he stabbed Dobbie.
“There was no emotion, no rage or passion,” he said. “It was just blank.”
Monday was the first day of Flick’s murder trial. He had asserted a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity, but his lawyer, Allan Lobozzo, said Monday that Flick had withdrawn that motion.
Flick also had initially waived his right to a jury trial, but later changed his mind.
A jury of 10 men and five women, including three alternates, was picked last week.
Flick, wearing a gray suit, looked on as the three surveillance videos were played for the jury.
During opening statements, Ellis told the jury Flick had become obsessed with Dobbie, following her around Lewiston, eating meals with her at Hope Haven Mission, where she was staying with her sons as they waited for an apartment in Farmington to become available.
Witnesses said Flick followed Dobbie to the Lewiston library, where she often took her children. He also followed her to the bus station.
“It was this infatuation that led to her murder,” Ellis said.
Ellis called several witnesses who said Dobbie tolerated Flick’s attention, but balked at his attempts to hug her or show her physical affection.
“She didn’t want it,” said Laura Kirkland, who knew Dobbie from the shelter.
“He was always trying to touch her,” Laurie Moreau said. “It was creepy.”
Lobozzo told the jury to keep an open mind during the trial and not to jump to conclusions when confronted with “some fairly outrageous allegations.”
He presented jurors with a graphic showing proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard needed for a criminal conviction, is the highest standard required in judicial proceedings. Prosecutors have the burden to prove their case to that degree for the jury to return a guilty verdict, he said.
Flick has a long history of violence against women, and was sentenced to prison for stabbing his wife 14 times in front of their child in 1979.
A judge who sentenced him for assaulting another woman in 2010 said Flick would no longer represent a threat because of his age. The judge disregarded the recommendations of the prosecutor and probation officer for a longer sentence, and Flick was released in 2014.
His trial is expected to continue Tuesday.
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