“Put yourself in Bill Cooper’s shoes.”

That’s what defense attorney Rick Faulkner asked of a Lawrence County Common Pleas Court jury Wednesday as he began presenting his case in the murder and felonious assault trial of William Cooper.

Cooper, 48, of Porter Gap Road, is charged with shooting and killing 35-year-old Scott Marcum and shooting and wounding Marcum’s 19-year-old friend, Orlan “J.R.” Harper Jr.

After the prosecution rested its case early Wednesday afternoon, Faulkner told the jury he would present evidence that would show Cooper shot the two men because he perceived he was under attack from several people, including the two victims, and because he thought both his son and daughter-in-law, William “Bub” Cooper Jr., and Amber Cooper, were in danger and that Bub had been assaulted.

“Focus on what did Bill perceive or know or think was going on. He knew something bad was happening around him,” Faulkner said.

He said William Cooper’s concern was fueled by three phone calls late that night from his daughter-in-law, Amber Cooper, informing his wife Marjorie that she was alone in the strip mines after her husband, Bub, had become angry and left her. She had no way home because Bub’s four-wheeler was inoperable and she was afraid.

In the meantime, Bub had allegedly come to his parents’ house, bleeding from facial wounds and in a drunken, angry frenzy after events that had taken place at a party at the strip mines.

“He knows he’s got to go up to the strip mines (to get Amber and the four-wheeler) and he takes a pistol,” Faulkner said. “He knows his son has been beat up, his daughter-in-law has been calling, she’s up in the strip mines, there’s alcohol involved and a lot of stuff he doesn’t understand

and it’s the strip mines.”

Faulkner said when Bub tried to take a gun out of the elder Cooper’s house, William Cooper prevented his son from grabbing a pistol, but took one himself as he followed his son to the Sisler residence that night. What he found at the Sisler residence was his Bub and the homeowner, Fred Sisler, engaged in a struggle.

“Bill got out. He tried to stop what was going on. He stepped out of the vehicle. He took the pistol out. He yelled ‘let him up’ or whatever and it didn’t stop. He fired a shot and at that point Bub ran. The evidence will show firing that one shot was not an unreasonable act.

But Faulkner said he would present evidence that Cooper was soon surrounded by people he thought were drinking and angry and would do him harm. That is why he fired his gun, shooting Marcum and Harper.

“We’re not here to judge the party (at the strip mines) but to focus on what happened,” Faulkner said.

John Keaton, a neighbor to the Marcums, Sislers and Coopers,

testified he had accompanied Bub to the Fred Sisler residence during the time that evening when Bub struck Marcum and Marcum also punched Bub, both men sustaining injuries to their faces.

“I saw Scott hit Bub and knock him to the ground,” Keaton said. “Everyone just walked away. I got him up, tried to get him to the truck so we could leave.”

Keaton

later accompanied the elder Cooper back to the Sisler residence. They were in pursuit of Bub, who had left his parents’ house in a drunken huff.

“We could see Bub and Fred rolling on the ground,” Keaton told the court. “And Bill stopped his car in the road. Bill told them to get off him or something. I walked around in front of the car and I heard a shot.”

Keaton said he saw Marcum and Harper run toward Cooper’s car, he heard another shot and ran away from the Sisler house. Later, he said the elder Cooper told him “I messed up.”

Under cross examination by Lawrence County Prosecutor J.B. Collier, Keaton agreed that when Fred had Bub pinned to the ground the first time, Fred was not punching him, as both Coopers have contended.

“He was just trying to calm him down,” Keaton said.

“Do you recall telling detective Bollinger that Bill Cooper said he was going to get Bub’s truck one way or the other?” Collier asked Keaton. Keaton replied he did remember.

“Did you ever see a weapon on Scott? On J.R.?

On Fred that day?” Collier asked, referring to the

contention that William Cooper thought someone else at the Sisler residence that night had a gun.

“No,” Keaton replied.

Amber Cooper testified she and Bub had gone to the strip mines to party with friends and that Bub had become angry and left her alone. The party broke up. She called her mother-in-law and asked if the elder Cooper could come and get her because she did not want to ride with Bub since he had been drinking heavily.

As to her emotional condition, Amber said she was “scared and crying.”

She refuted testimony from Fred Sisler that he had given her a ride on his four-wheeler down the hill from the strip mines that night.

Marjorie Cooper told the court that her son came to their house that night intoxicated, angry and suffering from facial wounds.

“He wanted to get a gun and Bill wouldn’t let him,” Marjorie’s voice broke at times as she testified. “He told him to go home. He told him to calm down and that he would go get Amber and the four-wheeler,” she said.

When her husband returned home after the shooting, she testified he was upset.

He said ‘I messed up,’” she said.

The trial continues today in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court before Judge Frank McCown.