BANGOR, Maine — More evidence was presented in a Washington County Court Wednesday, December 13 where the trial of Kailee Brackett and Donnell Dana continued.
Brackett and Dana were accused of the murder of Kimberly Neptune, who was found stabbed nearly 500 times in her Pleasant Point home in April of last year.
Several witnesses testified in court, including Neptune's neighbor Melissa Martin, Maine State Police detectives Adam Dell, Chris Foxworthy and Lawrence Anderson, Kailee Brackett's neighbor Ruth Bassett, and a woman named Hailey Levesque.
The focus of testimony Wednesday centered around security camera footage. Martin testified first, saying she was away from her home at work late on April 20 leading into April 21 when Neptune was killed.
She testified that she received a notification from her home cameras while she was at work on April 20. Her home cameras picked up her dogs barking consistently between the hours of 11 p.m. on April 20 until 1 a.m. on April 21, she said. She testified that she tried to log on to the cameras to calm her dogs remotely, but they continued to bark despite her attempts.
She said her motion sensitive lights outside her home picked up a shadow shortly after midnight. She then testified that her external home security camera picked up someone who may have been leaving Neptune’s home around 8 a.m. on April 21 and walking towards a nearby trail.
Martin said she could not tell who the individual was by looking at the video.
Maine State Police detective Adam Dell testified in court about his retrieval of Neptune's home security camera online cloud footage.
Dell said Neptune's physical home security camera was missing from her home when detectives and police investigated the scene, but he was able to find her online login information to access videos in the cloud.
Dell said he found a video showing someone outside of Neptune’s home at 12:19 a.m. on April 21, but he said he also could not make out who the person was.
Kailee Brackett’s neighbor Ruth Bassett testified in court saying that she saw Brackett, Dana and their son loading trash bags into Brackett’s car days after Neptune was killed.
Bassett said she doesn’t know what was in the bags. Defense attorney Jeffrey Toothacker questioned Bassett about her vision and her memory during cross examinations. Bassett answered saying that her vision and her memory are both not very good. Toothacker also asked Bassett to confirm again that she did not know what was in the bags, alleging that it could have been clothes or other items for Brackett and Dana's son.
During cross examinations of Detective Lawrence Anderson, Jeffrey Silverstein asked Anderson to verify that he was aware that Brackett and Dana's son had to have surgery on his broken arm around the time that Bassett said she saw them loading Brackett's car with trash bags. Anderson testified that he was aware and that it was confirmed that Brackett and Dana's son had surgery in Bangor, causing them to be away for a few days.
Anderson was also questioned about Neptune's bank accounts. Anderson said he requested surveillance video from two banks in Eastport, First National Bank and Bangor Savings Bank, after he learned that Neptune's bank cards were being used after she was killed.
The prosecution presented surveillance video pulled from both banks. The prosecution alleged that the video showed Brackett at both locations withdrawing money from Neptune's bank accounts. One withdrawal was in the amount of $500, and the other withdrawal was a little more than $200, state prosecutor Leane Zainea said.
Hailey Levesque gave a short testimony, saying she heard what she thought was an argument between Brackett and Neptune, where she said Brackett told Neptune "You're going to pay."
Witness testimonies and cross examinations will continue Thursday, Dec. 14.