PORTLAND, Maine — The retrial for Noah Gaston, the Windham husband accused of shooting and killing his wife, got underway Wednesday.
Noah Gaston claims he thought his wife, 34-year-old Alicia Gaston, was an intruder when he shot her in the stairwell of their Windham home in January 2016.
Prosecutors said during opening statements that they could prove Noah knew he was aiming at his wife when he pulled the trigger.
Gaston was visibly emotional and could be heard crying in the courtroom as his defense walked the jury through what happened the night of Jan. 14, 2016. Noah's defense attorney's claim he would never intentionally harm his wife.
In February, a judged ordered a mistrial after Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Mark Flomenbaum abruptly changed his forensic opinion concerning the angle of the gunshot wound. That testimony was key to both sides in terms of proving how close Gaston was to his wife at the time of the killing.
The defense lawyers argued that their trial preparations would have been different with the new information. Prosecutors said new testimony was not needed to prove their case.
Justice Michaela Murphy ruled the medical examiner's change in testimony was sufficient to grant the mistrial.
It came as a shock to the victim's family.
"To have to go through all of this and finally feel like we’re gonna get an answer, and we can try to put this behind us, and now we have to wait and go through all of this again. I just don’t know how….we’ll stay strong as a family, we’ll hold together," Barbara Lariviere, Alicia Gaston's aunt told NEWS CENTER Maine in February.
A new jury was seated in Cumberland County on Monday. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
“We don’t know when we are going to get justice for our Alicia. But we will. This may be a blessing in disguise. Just keep praying,” Lariviere said.
