PORTLAND, Maine — UPDATE: A judge has granted a mistrial in the Windham murder case.
Justice Michaela Murphy ruled that the state medical examiner's change in testimony was sufficient to grant the mistrial.
The cause of the mistrial is rooted in the state chief medical examiner Dr. Mark Flomenbaum’s change in his forensic opinion on Tuesday, concerning the angle of a gunshot wound that killed Alicia Gaston.
Barbara Lariviere, Alicia Gaston's aunt told NEWS CENTER Maine, "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."
The family remains confident that they will get an answer from the court on Alicia's death.
“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.
Noah Gaston's defense team said Gaston is still in custody “for now”. They say, “they’re disappointed trial had to end, it’s been hard on everyone.”
When asked for comment on the medical examiner's change in his forensic opinion, Robert Andrews, the defense attorney for Noah Gaston, said: "because we don’t have an explanation for that, we’re not prepared to speculate, but that explanation is coming and when it does, we’ll know more about what’s going to happen. Right now we expect this case to be re-tried sometime next fall."
Noah Gaston's defense team has asked a judge for a mistrial in the Windham murder case where Noah Gaston is charged with killing his wife, Alicia Gaston, according to a report in the Portland Press Herald.
The paper reports Maine chief medical examiner Dr. Mark Flomenbaum told prosecutors Tuesday that his opinion of the direction of the gunshot wound to Alicia Gaston's abdomen had changed. His previous opinion was the wound path was "very slightly downward." Flomenbaum said he now believes the wound could have been at a 45-degree angle, according to the paper.
RELATED: Windham man's murder trial underway
Assistant Attorney General Meg Elam told the court Thursday that it appeared Dr. Flomenbaum saw trial exhibit photographs of the wound and changed his opinion, according to the Press Herald.
The defense lawyers argued Thursday that their trial preparations would have been different with the new information. The Press Herald says the prosecution told the court new testimony is not needed to support contention that Alicia Gaston was near the top of the stairs at the time of the shooting.
Noah Gaston stands accused of shooting and killing his wife, Alicia Gaston, in the stairwell of their Windham family home in 2016.
Noah Gaston claims he heard noises downstairs on the morning of Jan. 14, thinking there was an intruder inside. Alicia, 34, reportedly died of a single shotgun shot.
NEWS CENTER Maine will update this story.