Linden Beaton, center, stands with his lawyers, Sam Roberts, left, and Gillian Kress at his trial in state Supreme Court, St. George. (Steve White for the Staten Island Advance)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A longtime forensic pathologist testified on Tuesday at Linden Beaton’s murder trial that the victim, Johynita Jordan, most likely died of a fatal methadone overdose and not by asphyxia, as the medical examiner determined three years ago.

Dr. William Oliver, the defense’s first witness and a key one, said Jordan, who was on a methadone maintenance program, was also taking other prescription drugs, which, in combination with the high concentration of methadone found in her system, “likely” sent her heart into a fatal arrhythmia.

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