VIDALIA — Prosecutors used the victim’s phone records Wednesday to build their case to convince jurors that George Byrd murdered a Monterey man in 2014.

Byrd is accused of second-degree murder in the death of 63-year-old John Perritt. Perritt was found wrapped in blankets on the grass behind his trailer home in Monterey.

Kenzell Isaac was the major witness called by the prosecution on Wednesday. His mother, Kimmie, had previously identified him as someone who would use her phone both with permission and without. On Sept. 18, 2014, Kenzell Isaac said he let a person who he knew on the street as “Larry Byrd” use his mother’s phone. Isaac was able to correctly identify the defendant, George Byrd, as the person he called “Larry Byrd.”

Defense attorney Darrell Hickman questioned Isaac on why he would let someone he barely knew use his phone.

“I would let you use my phone if you were in my neighborhood and needed to make a call,” Isaac testified.

After Byrd allegedly made a call, Isaac said he entered that number into his phone under the name “Lick” — someone he would contact for sex.

Prosecutors contend that the victim and his alleged murderer were brought together because the victim, who was white, paid young black men to have sex.

While Isaac testified that he didn’t hear the conversation, Byrd’s reputation on the street was that he was someone who had homosexual sex for money.

Isaac, who said at the time he had a marijuana habit, wanted to make some cash. Isaac said he called Perritt multiple times on the night of Sept. 18.

During the first conversation Isaac had with the victim, whose name Isaac said he never knew, Isaac said Perritt asked about Byrd’s location. Byrd was allegedly supposed to meet the victim at 9 p.m. at Jr. Food Mart on Triumph Lane in Natchez. Isaac told the jury he called back multiple times and was able to reach Perritt again during the night.

“I said, ‘What’s up, I could be George,’ to let him know I was willing,” he said. “I go both ways — it would not have been the first time.

“But he wasn’t hearing it, he was not dealing with it unless it was George.”

Later that night Isaac testified Perritt told him that he was on his way home, but he didn’t say where home was. He also didn’t know if Byrd was in the vehicle with him or not.

In the coming days, Isaac said the word on the street was Byrd was going around bragging about having “hit a lick,” in this case having committed an armed robbery.

Hickman clarified during his redirect that Isaac didn’t know for sure what the alleged conversation was about and if Byrd was even having sex for money — that was just the rumor in the neighborhood.

Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office investigator Phillip Webber said Isaac had been a suspect, but once the investigation was able to acquire GPS data from the phone companies involved, detectives were able to rule him out.

Records showed Perritt’s phone was moving around the Cambridge Heights area at approximately 9 to 10 p.m., where both Isaac and Byrd were known to stay. He also passed in the area near Jr. Food Mart multiple times.

Around 9:43 p.m., Perritt was on Martin Luther King Jr. Street presumably headed toward downtown Natchez and ultimately Monterey. By 9:59 p.m., the last location timestamp detectives were able to acquire, Perritt’s phone was located near Gillespie Street in Vidalia near its connection to Louisiana 131, a route toward Monterey.

Assistant District Attorney Ann Siddall questioned Christopher Tape, who conducted the autopsy of Perritt, of the Louisiana Forensic Center.

Tape said that Perritt was stabbed nine times, eight to the chest, throat and stomach and one to the left arm. The deepest cut went about four inches deep.

The wounds were most consistent with a knife. Tape said he was surprised to not find any defensive wounds on the victim’s hands. Though he admitted Perritt could have fainted at the sight of blood.

The trial continues today at 9 a.m. with Judge Kathy Johnson presiding.