The evidence presented in the first part of Larry Jackson Jr.’s trial Tuesday centered around the murder scene, one that one official called “gruesome.”

Jackson is charged with killing Marshall “Mark” Brown in March 2005. Brown was found dead in his RV, which was parked in front of a garage on U.S. 61 North.

In his opening statement, Assistant District Attorney David Hall said his side planned to prove Jackson was involved in Brown’s murder.

Brown died in what appeared to be an attack with a sharp-edged object, Hall said.

“That’s how Mark Brown died,” Hall said. “He got his throat slit. We expect to prove to you that (Jackson) is guilty.”

Jackson’s attorney, Bradley Hayes, said he saw things differently. After quoting from the Bible, a passage he said gave him inspiration to defend Jackson, Hayes said he thought there would be no evidence to prove Jackson was guilty.

Jackson was “unjustly accused of a crime he did not commit,” Hayes said.

“There is no doubt someone did murder Mark Brown. But they have no evidence. (Jackson) did not do it, and he does not know who did it.”

The state’s witnesses included a friend of the victim who discovered him, law officials, the county coroner and a forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy.

Adams County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Ronnie Coleman was first on the scene after Brown was discovered dead.

“I went inside the RV and saw him lying, his knees on the floor and his body on the couch,” Coleman said.

“There was quite a bit of blood.”

Soon, ACSO Investigator Ricky Stevens took over the investigation, taking photographs and collecting evidence, he said when he took the stand.

No fingerprints or DNA evidence was found from evidence collected from the scene, he said.

Adams County Coroner James Lee echoed Coleman’s thoughts on the scene.

“It was a very horrifying scene,” Lee said at his testimony Tuesday.

“(Brown) had apparently been hilled by having his throat sliced to pieces. I was concerned his neck would come off, it was slashed that badly.”

Photographs were passed out to the jury members, some of whom frowned or looked uneasy.

Dr. Steven Hayne, pathologist for the state medical examiner’s office, agreed with Lee’s assessment that Brown was the victim of a homicide and died from blood loss through the throat.

There were also defensive wounds, acquired when the victim tried to defend himself, Hayne said. The body had a total of 24 slash wounds, he said.

“There were signs of a struggle,” he said.

“It was a lethal struggle. There is evidence he was trying to ward off a sharp edge.”

Brown also had a blood alcohol concentration high enough to consider him intoxicated, Hayne said.

After jury selection and before calling witnesses, the two lead attorneys said each had not given the other full information in time to prepare for the trial.

Hayes said the district attorney’s office had taken last-minute statements from a potential witness about Jackson allegedly threatening a potential witness.

Hayes said the DA’s office had not shared the statement immediately.

District Attorney Ronnie Harper said he shared the information as soon as he received it.

Judge Forrest “Al” Johnson said the information was not necessarily relevant to this particular case but, if the charge of threats were true, could be considered in the future as a charge on its own.

Harper, in turn, said Hayes did not give his office a full list of potential witnesses and what they might be asked until Tuesday morning.

Johnson instructed the two sides Tuesday evening to get witnesses lined up for today’s proceedings.