SKOWHEGAN — The trial of a Norridgewock man charged with the fatal shooting of an Anson man about three years ago will begin Monday.

Robert Nelson, 41, is charged with the murder of Everett L. Cameron in Anson on Oct. 31, 2009. Cameron was parked in his pickup truck on a dirt path off Town Farm Road when he was shot.

Nelson’s defense attorney, Philip Mohlar, said Nelson is nervous “but looking forward to the opportunity to clear his name.”

Nelson waived his right to a jury trial earlier this month, so the case will be decided by Somerset County Superior Court Justice John Nivison.

Mohlar said they asked for a bench trial for tactical reasons.

Police have said that Cameron, who was 60 when he died, and Nelson knew each other but they have not said how.

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Cameron spent Oct. 31, 2009 hunting before returning home and changing out of his hunting clothes, according to a court affidavit. He later drove his 1990 Chevrolet pickup truck into woods near his home, parking about 20 feet from the road.

Cameron’s girlfriend found his body around 4 p.m. Cameron had told his son and girlfriend that he had plans to meet with Nelson that day.

Cameron’s family said in 2010 they thought his death was also connected to the sale of medication he used related to his lymphoma.

Official cause of death was a gun shot to the head, according to Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea.

She said the trial is expected to last this week and possibly into the next.

There are 48 people on the witness list, including 10 members of the Maine State Police, two deputies with the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department, Chief Medical Examiner Margaret Greenwald, Maine State Crime Lab senior laboratory scientist Kimberly Stevens and 34 area residents, including Virginia Hayden, Cameron’s girlfriend, and Everett J. Cameron Sr., his son.

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Nelson was already being held at the Somerset County Jail on an unrelated charge when he was arrested and indicted September 2011, almost two years after Cameron’s death.

He pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person in October 2011.

He is being held at the Somerset County Jail in East Madison without bail on the murder charge.

If convicted, he faces 25 years to life in prison on the murder charge, and up to five years on the firearm charge.

Nelson is prohibited from having a firearm because he was convicted in Penobscot County Superior Court in 1994 for burglarizing a motor vehicle.

Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
rohm@mainetoday.com


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