AUBURN -- Joseph Chute will stand trial this week, charged with the 2023 killing of a Windham man whose body was stuffed in a barrel and dumped in New Hampshire.
Prosecutors will attempt to prove that Chute, 33, shot 34-year-old Alex Jackson in the head on May 12, 2023, before disposing of the body in a New Hampshire sandpit.
Jackson's remains were not found for nearly a year. By then, Chute was already in jail, suspected of the killing.
Since he was arrested in March of 2024, Chute has been represented by Lewiston lawyer Verne E. Paradie, who will defend him at trial.
Before police began investigating the case as a murder, officials had been searching for Jackson, who was reported missing by his family. He had last been seen in the Turner area.
The family said that Jackson regularly traveled back roads in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, hauling items for farmers with his flatbed trailer.
According to court records, at the time when Jackson went missing, Chute owned him money for construction equipment.
During their investigation into the killing, police investigators got information from Chute's former girlfriend, who described how she and Chute drove around Maine and New Hampshire searching for a place to dispose of Jackson's body.
The former girlfriend was not charged in the case and was granted immunity from prosecution as a key witness in the case against Chute.
Jackson's body had been stuffed inside a 55-gallon drum Chute procured from his farm shortly after shooting and killing Jackson, investigators say.
A witness told police that Chute had also hacked up Jackson's belongings and disposed of them, leaving no trace of the dead man.
As part of their investigation, Maine State Police reviewed data from the cellphones of Chute and his girlfriend on May 14, 2023. They also spoke to several witnesses who told investigators that Chute had confessed to them that he had shot Jackson in the head at his farm.
Chute's attorney is expected to point out what he claims are inconsistencies among statements made to police. In earlier court hearings, Paradie pointed to inconsistencies in text messages between Chute and Jackson that conflict with what witnesses had told police.
Jackson's remains were discovered near Stark, New Hampshire, in mid April of 2024. He had been shot in the back of the head, according to court records.
Police believe that before he was killed, Jackson had been about to travel to northern Vermont with his dog, Hazel, who was found three days later in North Yarmouth.