Trial starts for student charged in mother's slaying

• Pyne, a University of Michigan biology student, faces life prison without parole if convicted
• Prosecutors say he had fresh wounds on his hands the day he was arrested
• Defense attorneys say there is little evidence tying Pyne to the killing

DETROIT -- Ruth Pyne's 10-year-old daughter found her dead in the family's garage, her skull crushed and her neck stabbed repeatedly.

Prosecutors contend Jeffrey Pyne, a biology student at the University of Michigan, killed his mother that day in May 2011 because he was angry over her ongoing mental illness and her refusal to take medication.

His defense attorney says prosecutors have the wrong man on trial.

As Pyne's trial got under way with opening statements Friday in Oakland County Circuit Court, jurors heard the frantic 911 call placed by Bernard Pyne after his young daughter found his wife's body on May 27, 2011.

"Send an ambulance," Bernard Pyne begs. "There is blood everywhere. I can't figure out what's happened."

In the background, their 10-year-old daughter can be heard whimpering and crying.

The Pynes' next-door neighbor, David Gilbert, testified he heard Bernard screaming and ran to help. Gilbert peeked around the door into the garage, and could see Ruth's bloody hand. He looked further.

"I saw her lying on the ground in a large pool of blood," Gilbert told jurors. "She appeared to be deceased."

Jeffrey Pyne, who was arrested a year ago, is charged with first-degree murder and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

Assistant prosecutor John Skrzynski pointed to Pyne's fresh wounds on his hands the day of the slaying as evidence.

William Cartwright, a manager at Spicers Orchard and Farm Market in Fenton, testified Pyne showed up for his usual 3 p.m. shift, where he worked odd jobs, with blister-like scrapes on his hands. Pyne told him he had hurt himself while throwing a wooden pallet used to store produce.

But the injuries seemed odd, Cartwright testified. "It looked like he'd gone to the batting cage and took 50 swings," he said.

Prosecutors contend Pyne suffered those injuries as he swung the murder weapon, likely a board.

"This was an angry, angry killing. It was the result of years and years with a difficult person who was bipolar,'' Skrzynski told jurors.

Court documents show Ruth Pyne, 51, had been seriously mentally ill since 1998. She was repeatedly hospitalized and sometimes assaultive toward her children. Nine months before she was killed, she was jailed after trying to strangle Jeffrey Pyne, according to records.

Defense attorney James Champion said prosecutors have little evidence tying Jeffrey Pyne to the killing.

"We absolutely reject the notion that Jeffrey had anything to do with this," he said. "We believe the evidence will show a rush to judgment."