SKOWHEGAN — Andrew B. Maderios allegedly became so enraged at his live-in girlfriend the day after Christmas 2013 that he strangled her with both hands until she vomited on the floor of the home the couple shared in Pittsfield.
Maderios, 29, of Pittsfield, a former Nokomis Regional High School music teacher, cleaned up the mess with a pair of his dirty boxer shorts then stuffed the shorts in the woman’s mouth.
That was part of the testimony Monday during the first day of Maderios’ Somerset County Superior Court trial on nine counts of domestic violence, four of which are felonies that could put him in prison for at least 10 years.
Somerset County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney called his former girlfriend to the stand Monday. The woman, who the Morning Sentinel is not naming because she is the alleged victim of a crime, said she was humiliated and scared by the abuse, some of which she captured in audio recordings on her iPhone. She said the abuse continued for months until she secured a protection order against Maderios in August 2014.
“He said I made him do these things to me,” the woman told the jury of eight men and seven woman, including three alternates.
In his opening statements to the jury Monday, Maderios’ lawyer Leonard Sharon told the jury that Maderios was the actual victim of domestic abuse in a scheme hatched by the live-in girlfriend.
“What did you think looking over at Mr. Maderios?” Sharon asked the jury. “You look over and you see a man that is innocent. Just because someone is charged doesn’t make him guilty … not maybe, not probably, but beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Citing longtime conservative radio talk show host Paul Harvey, Sharon said he would spend the week telling the jurors “the rest of the story,” Harvey’s signature phrase.
All the evidence brought to police in the form of iPhone photos and audio recordings was part of a plan — a presentation — to make it look like Maderios was the abuser, not the other way around. Sharon said there were at least 10 audio recordings on the woman’s cellphone, but only two were brought to police as evidence. Eight other recordings were deleted, he said, and asked the jury why they thought that was.
He said the case against his client is fiction.
In her opening statements Monday, Maloney made it clear that she was bringing a solid case — a classic case — of domestic abuse of a woman by a man.
“Hurtful words are not against the law,” Maloney said, walking close to the defendant’s table and looking right at Maderios. “Putting your hands around someone’s neck and slamming their head on a concrete floor is.
“Andrew Maderios is guilty of all counts,” she told the jury.
Maloney questioned the woman on the stand for about five hours Monday, going over every photograph and every segment of each of the two audio tapes presented as evidence.
Maloney played two audio recordings of the alleged assaults, which had screaming, sobbing, crying and at one point a yell, “Get off of me!” Maloney would stop the tape and ask the woman to describe what was happening.
The audio allegedly was recorded on her cellphone during the attacks. Photos were presented of the woman showing scrapes, cuts and deep bruises allegedly caused by Maderios, also taken by the woman on her cellphone.
Maloney a year ago, in a hearing requesting a higher bail for Maderios, said that he allegedly beat and strangled his then live-in girlfriend in attacks that began the day after Christmas in 2013.
In a court affidavit filed in support of a warrant for Maderios’ arrest, Somerset County domestic violence investigator James Ross said Maderios’ girlfriend told him July 7, 2014, she had been attacked over the past two years. She said she began documenting the assaults with audio recordings of Maderios on her cellphone and with photographs she took of her injuries.
On Dec. 26, 2013, she locked herself in their home’s bathroom after a disagreement, the woman testified Monday.
She said Maderios used a metal rod, like a skewer, to pop the lock on the door and strangled her until she passed out. When she woke up, she tried to call 911, but Maderios allegedly smashed the phone and she attempted to run away.
The abuse allegedly continued into the following day, Dec. 27, when Maderios allegedly told the woman to “take your last breath because you are going to die,” she testified Monday.
She testified that Maderios also threatened to kill her children and feared that if she called police, he would easily make bail and come back to hurt her and the kids.
“He said he would kill my children if I left,” she said in court Monday. “It shocked me. He never said anything like that before.”
Maderios allegedly told her the abuse was her fault.
She said when she tried to talk to him about the abuse, Maderios would say, “You’re not listening to me” over and over again.
Sharon cross-examined the woman for about 40 minutes Monday before court was recessed for the day.
Sharon concentrated his questioning on her iPhone evidence and how it was transferred to a thumb drive that was given to police.
The woman said there were originally at least 10 audio entries on her phone, and she did not recall deleting any because her phone automatically backed up files on her laptop computer.
The domestic violence continued in January and March 2014 and on July 4, 2014, according to court documents.
Maderios was arrested in July 2014 when he got off an airplane in Atlanta while he was chaperoning an educational trip with students who included the alleged victim’s daughter.
Last year Maderios was put on paid leave from Nokomis Regional High School in Newport, where he was a music teacher. It wasn’t clear Monday what his status with the school district, Regional School Unit 19, was.
The jury trial, which is expected to last all week, continues at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter: @Doug_Harlow
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