PARIS -- Attorneys in the first-degree murder trial in Logan County Circuit Court of Harry Bodine did not dispute in opening statements Friday that Bodine shot and killed Joseph Allen Stapleton last year.
But what the prosecution is calling murder, Bodine's attorney is calling self-defense.
A jury of 10 men and two women with two female alternates was selected Friday morning to hear the trial against Bodine, 54, who is charged in the shooting in May 2013 of Stapleton, 34, at Stapleton's father's home on North Fifth Street in Paris. Bodine also is charged with hindering apprehension.
The trial is scheduled to last through Tuesday before Circuit Judge Jerry Don Ramey.
In his opening statement, deputy prosecutor Brian Mueller told the jury that Bodine admitted shooting Stapleton seven times. When questioned days after the shooting, Bodine told Logan County sheriff's investigators he had nothing to do with Stapleton's death. But questioned again four months later, he admitted shooting Stapleton.
Bodine's attorney, Public Defender John Irwin of Morrilton, told jurors that in confessing to shooting Stapleton, his client said that a drunken and enraged Stapleton had charged at him with a brake drum.
Irwin said Stapleton was a big man who was drunk and high on marijuana. He pointed to Bodine, who was in the courtroom sitting a wheelchair. He said evidence would show that Stapleton got so close to Bodine before Bodine fired the first shot that there was stippling, tiny red marks caused by close contact with burning gunpowder on Stapleton's skin.
Mueller said the investigation showed that Bodine and his younger brother, Brett, 52, drove to the home of Stapleton's father, Bill Finney, on May 13.
Brett Bodine also is charged with first-degree murder in Stapleton's death and with hindering apprehension. His trial was severed from his brother's earlier this month and a separate trial date for him has not been set, according to court records.
While Harry Bodine sat in the car, Brett went to the front door and called for Stapleton to come out, Mueller said.
Mueller did not mention the brake-drum attack to jurors but said Harry Bodine admitted he shot Stapleton seven times.
As the brothers were driving away, Mueller said, a neighbor of Finney, John Thias, was driving home from work about 5:30 p.m. that day and passed a white car on Fifth Street with two men in it.
Thias' wife, Helen, told investigators she heard gunshots that evening, Mueller said.
Mueller said Harry Bodine called police the next morning when he and a woman went to Finney's home on the pretext of feeding Finney's dogs. He reported finding Stapleton's body facedown on the front lawn of the home.
NW News on 09/27/2014