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Provo • As the prosecutor stood before the jury, he said the death of Marvin Kent Sidwell was no "mystery or whodunit like you see on TV."
Sidwell's brother-in-law, Stephen Edward Strate, has admitted to emptying his Colt Mustang .380 and killing the 51-year-old Sidwell nearly two years ago.
"The only question is why," Utah County Prosecutor Craig Johnson said.
As Strate's trial began Tuesday in 4th District Court, prosecutors said Strate "had had enough" when he shot and killed his brother-in-law.
"He was sick and tired of all [Sidwell's] antics and bizarre behavior — embarrassing behavior, frankly," Johnson said.
Defense attorney Ron Yengich, however, said Strate only raised his gun at a man he loved in order to save his own life.
On Oct. 25, 2009, Sidwell erroneously believed Strate had been considering selling the home where Sidwell lived. And on the morning of the shooting, Sidwell, upset about what he thought was a potential sale to a neighbor, wrote a threat in chalk on the neighbor's driveway, according to testimony.
Called to deal with the problem, Strate drove to the home and forced his way into Sidwell's basement bedroom, Johnson said. Strate, the larger of the two men, knocked Sidwell to the ground, then started hitting him, the prosecutor said. At that point, Sidwell grabbed a drummer's stool that weighed seven pounds.
Strate pulled a gun and fired seven times, hitting Sidwell five times, including once in the back.
Yengich called the prosecution's claims a theory unsupported by evidence.
As Sidwell came at Strate with the stool, Strate thought not only of that weapon but also of the "veritable arsenal of guns and blow guns and crossbows and darts" in the room, Yengich said.
"He had to make a split-second decision that is often easy to Monday-morning quarterback," Yengich told jurors.
Strate — who had a valid concealed-carry permit for the gun — is charged in 4th District Court with first-degree felony murder.
His trial is expected to run through Sept. 7 before Judge James Taylor.
According to evidence presented at a March 2010 preliminary hearing, Sidwell had ingested methamphetamine the day of the shooting.
A paramedic who responded to the shooting testified Tuesday that Strate's mother-in-law, Laverne Sidwell, told him Strate "came in like a bull" looking for Marvin Sidwell. But on the witness stand, she had only good things to say about her son-in-law, calling him a "peacemaker." Strate, the owner of Strate Crane Service, gave his brother-in-law money and helped him find jobs, she said.
"There's been times [Strate] has been better to me than my own sons," she said. "I still love him."