VIDALIA— Day two of George Byrd’s murder trial took the jury through the first six days of the investigation, from when authorities first discovered victim John Perritt’s body to when Byrd was brought in for questioning.

Byrd, who is now 28, is accused of second-degree murder in the death of 63-year-old Perritt, who was found under blankets outside of his trailer home in Monterey.

District Attorney Brad Burget said on Sept. 22, 2014, Albert Crouch was grating Perritt’s driveway. Perritt was Crouch’s uncle.

While making passes over the driveway, Crouch noticed a strong smell of what he thought was a dead animal.

Burget said Crouch then saw a large pile of blankets between the steps leading up to the back door and the air conditioning unit. Under those blankets was a human foot.

Once investigators arrived, Burget said, they noticed two strange things outside besides the body. Perritt’s car was missing and a shotgun rested 15-feet from the body.

The missing car, a black Ford Fusion, was located a day later in Natchez.

Burget said the residence was extremely neat and organized until detectives entered the master bedroom, where a large pool of blood on the right side of the bed was found.

“That’s probably where he was killed,” he said. “There was blood splatter on the dresser and the sheets had been removed.”

Detectives used notes found at the home and debit statements to determine that Perritt was last known to be alive on the evening of Sept. 18, 2014.

Burget said Perritt’s phone records showed that a number belonging to Kimmie Isaac was the last to text Perritt. Her phone, Burget said, would lead detectives to Byrd, who was interviewed on Sept. 29.

After questioning Byrd, the investigation turned to the owner of the vehicle in which he was found — Stephanie Armstead Banks, who Byrd was dating at the time.

Interviewed on the first day of October, Burget said Banks said that Byrd told her that he killed a man across the river, trying to commit a robbery of a house near a bayou. After killing a neighbor that attempted to run him off, Banks told investigators that Byrd said he wrapped him up in blankets.

During a later interview, Banks told investigators that Byrd pulled a knife on her during an argument.

“She said, ‘What are you going to do, stab me like you did that man across the river?’” Burget said. “Mr. Byrd told her then that he stabbed him because he was supposed to give him something but he did not.”

Burget said to this point investigators had not released to the media that Perritt had been stabbed. He had been stabbed a total of nine times and didn’t have any defensive wounds.

Finally, on April 23, 2015, Banks told investigators that Byrd said he had a sexual relationship with a man in Monterey, Burget said.

“After the killing, he, Mr. Byrd, and Mr. James Anderson went back and cleaned up the apartment,” Burget said. “He also told her that he covered Mr. Perritt up with a sheet and had trouble dragging him out of the house.”

Lead investigator Phillip Webber was able to connect Byrd to having used other people’s phones to contact Perritt, including the girlfriend of Desmond “Dez” Washington, Burget said.“Dez is the final nail in Mr. Byrd’s coffin,” Burget said. “He lived with Dez and his girlfriend quite a bit at the Heights apartment complex.”

Cambridge Heights is near the sawmill where Perritt’s Fusion was located, and Washington said Byrd showed up to his house one night soaking wet.

When detectives cranked the Fusion, it was blaring loud hip hop music and the windshield wipers were running.

“Guess the only time it rained during that five to six day period?” Burget asked. “The overnight hours between September 18 and Sept. 19, 2014.”

Burget said no DNA or fingerprint evidence linked Byrd to the crime, but that made sense because he and Anderson went back to clean up.

“Mr. Byrd killed Mr. Perritt, and he had a sexual relationship with him,” Burget said. “Mr. Perritt was a homosexual who enjoyed having relationships with young black males.

“He picked the wrong person. They had a dispute about money … and he stabbed him nine times with a knife into the body.”

Byrd’s defense attorney Darrell Hickman talked about what the jury is not going to hear during his opening statement.

“One thing you are not going to find is any DNA evidence linking George Byrd to this property,” he said. “There are no fingerprints. You are not going to see any murder weapon linked to Byrd. No witnesses say they saw George Byrd with Perritt on Sept. 18.”

Hickman said what the jury will see is circumstantial evidence that may not be all what it seems.

He also said the jury should pay attention to the witnesses.

“They all have ulterior motives, each and every one of them,” Hickman said.

Banks was angry with Byrd over money, Hickman said, and Washington was always in trouble with the law and looking to get out of those situations.

“Dez claimed George told him he killed a man in September, but he still allowed that man to live in his house with his kids for over eight months,” he said. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Hickman said Byrd is not a choirboy, but that he wouldn’t kill a man.

“What you have are people who are supposedly friends of him, indicating he maybe did this,” Hickman said. “What happened to John Perritt, I don’t know.

“Once you hear the evidence, the only verdict will be not guilty.”

Capt. Jack Fletcher was the first officer on the scene and the first witness to be called by the prosecution. He discussed photos he had taken.

Pictures included the body wrapped up in blankets and sheets that Fletcher said he thought came from the master bedroom bed, which had been stripped.

The chest and stomach area had sustained what investigators first assumed were shotgun wounds due to the proximity of a gun to the corpse.

“The autopsy later revealed that it was stab wounds from a knife,” Fletcher said. “It’s hard to tell with a body that is decomposing and swelling like that.”

Fletcher said at least two sets of footprints appeared to be set in blood between the room and master bathroom. The footprints did not match the shoes that Perritt had been wearing, as he had been wrapped in one of them, and the other was under the dresser to the right of the bed.

Detectives also discovered a pillow filled up with belt buckles and ammunition from different guns, which along with a statement from Perritt’s adopted son, caused officers to start looking for pistols and shotguns, Fletcher said. Two guns matching some of the ammunition were not recovered at the home.

A flat-screen TV also appeared to be missing, but the doorknob did not appear to be tampered with consistent with breaking and entering, Fletcher said, nor was any of the jewelry Perritt inherited from his mother taken.

On the dresser, detectives found medical supplies consistent with someone who was diabetic. Perritt appeared to be meticulous in marking in a journal what his sugar was during the morning before breakfast and after dinner, Fletcher said. The last entry was supper time on Sept. 18.

Before leaving the home, investigators discovered what appeared to be a small blood smear on the washing machine at the back door, which someone dragging Perritt’s body by would have scraped up against on the way to the yard. It appeared that someone had attempted to clean the machine, Fletcher said.

Further, no fingerprints were found in the home, not even those of Perritt. Fletcher said not finding the owner’s prints indicated cleaning likely occurred.

The final witness of the day was Capt. Phillip Webber, who was the lead investigator on the case. Webber, who had begun to look into bank statements, said Perritt’s last entry on his debit card was around 8 p.m. on Sept. 18, 2014, at the Walmart in Vidalia. Webber said Perritt entered and left Walmart alone.

Webber said they did not find Perritt’s cell phone on the scene, but they were able to subpoena AT&T to obtain usage records and uncovered that a Natchez number had been texting Perritt after 9 p.m. on the 18th.

That number was traced to Kimmie Isaac, who worked at Promise Hospital on the Vidalia Riverfront.

Isaac said she did not know Perritt, and agreed to let detectives search her phone.

Webber said the text messages had been deleted, but Perritt’s name showed up on her phone under the name ‘Lick.’ A lick often means two things on the streets, Burget said: someone about to be robbed or sexual overtones.

After interviewing Isaac, detectives brought in her son, Kenzell, 20. Kenzell led detectives to Byrd, who after first evading the Natchez Police Department on Sept. 28, was brought in for questioning on Sept. 29.

During the interview, which was approximately an hour and 40 minutes long, Byrd’s story went from seeing Perritt once to having seen him multiple times. But he never admitted to having done anything with him.

At first, Byrd said he thought Perritt was in the area of Watts Avenue one night trying to score some “Mojo,” or synthetic marijuana. Later in the interview, he admitted Perritt was “Looking to have some fun.”

After the video interview, Judge Kathy Johnson recessed the trial until 9:30 a.m. today.