FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — Was Weston Blakely attacked from behind as he walked to his bedroom and, with his head bleeding, grab a small .38 caliber gun and shoot his friend?

Or did he shoot Jonathon Christopher Jackson in the head and then, in cold blood, shoot him several more times as he lay in the hallway of that small apartment? The final act, a slash to Jackson’s throat?

And what could possibly have been the motive for either one acting in such a vicious and bewildering manner?

On Tuesday, the murder trial began for Blakely, 23, who on Nov. 10, 2021 told Jackson he could come over and hang out after Jackson called him up. Not long after, Jackson was dead.

Defense attorney Robert Scremin, who has been the lead attorney in several recent murder trials, said Blakely worked as a welder, had his own car and his own apartment.

On the stand, Jackson’s father, also Jonathon C. Jackson, didn’t present quite the same picture of his son, but didn’t say he was homeless or looking for a place to stay. And his son loved collecting knives. He had many of them, he told Scremin.

Detectives likely to take the stand tomorrow will be the ones to establish what happened and when.

“The scene tells the story,” promised Tom Chaille, Allen County Chief Deputy Prosecutor, who insisted that Blakely’s injuries will tell the story as well. “He definitely has injuries, cuts to the back of his head and neck, cuts to his hand. That’s not in dispute.”

But even with those injuries, Blakely was able to communicate and was conscious when police arrived after a neighbor called 911. The neighbor heard yelling and then the gun shots. And, more significantly, Blakely’s story changed when he talked to detectives a few days later.

There were signs of a struggle in Blakely’s living room, blood on the couch where he sat waiting for police to arriv, on the television and smeared on the walls, Chaille said.  

Expert witnesses will talk about where the bullets entered Jackson’s body and the location of shell casings, the part of the bullet ejected from a gun when a projectile is shot.

During opening arguments, Scremin told the jury that his client was “viciously attacked” 20 to 30 times. The knife went in so deep in Blakely’s jaw that his attacker “gouged a tooth out.” Another knife cut “chipped a bone on his finger.” He was starting to lose consciousness before the police arrived and didn’t remember that he went outside.

The two young men weren’t close friends, Scremin said. “They didn’t drink beers on the weekend,” and there were reports of a “falling out” over a girl a few years before.

Blakely picked him up at a gas station close to his father’s house and the terrible scene unfolded.

The trial is scheduled for four days in front of Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull.