Detective Robin Langford displays paddle allegedly used by Chance Loftis to kill the dog Braxton
An investigator said a trail of blood and beer bottles was near where the lifeless body of 46-year-old Donald Rogers was found in an aluminum fishing boat on April 24, 2012.
Detective Robin Langford said when he arrived at the site by boat docks off Johnson Road the body was still in the boat. He said the victim's head and arms were over the side of the boat.
Chance Loftis, who was 24 at the time, is standing trial in the courtroom of Judge Don Poole for murder and aggravated animal cruelty. The victim's Yorkshire terrier, Braxton, was also killed.
Travis Jenkins, 28 at the time, is also charged. He testified against his co-defendant, who was his roommate at the time.
Blood was found on the inside of the boat and on the till, Detective Langford said.
He said there were also spots of blood on a nearby dock and leading from the dock.
The jury was shown a box of seven empty Bud Lite cans and three full ones and another box of 21 full cans of beer. Those were collected in the vicinity of the dock.
Jenkins said he accepted an offer to camp out on the river with Rogers, who lived down the street from him in Cleveland. He said Loftis came along. Jenkins said Loftis attacked Rogers after he became so drunk he could not find his campsite and he ran the boat on a tree.
Jenkins said he believed Rogers was just hurt when they left him after paddling to the dock.
Detective Langford said the boat paddle that Jenkins said Loftis used to kill Braxton was on the dock along with a silver necklace.
The jury was also shown a bloody shirt belonging to Jenkins. He claimed he did not strike the victim, but went over to check on him after Loftis stopped hitting him around the face with his fist. Jenkins said Rogers got out a knife after Loftis became angry.
Investigators recovered one knife in the boat and found sheaths for two knives. Jenkins said Loftis got the knife away from Rogers that he had picked up, and he (Jenkins) tossed it in the water.
TBI Agt. Kelly Hopkins said Rogers had a blood alcohol level of .015 - almost double drunk - at the time it was sampled by the medical examiner.
She said he had a therapeutic level of Xanax and also some Benadryl in his system.
She said the combination of drugs could have an exponential effect on some individuals.
Attorney Mary Sullivan Moore noted that the blood alcohol was sampled quickly, but the drug sample arrived on June 29, 2012, and was not tested until the following January. Agt. Hopkins said that is because of a backlog at the crime lab in Nashville.
She said the office gets 500-1,000 more samples a month to be tested.
Family members said Rogers would go out on the river for as long as a month, moving from campsite to campsite. He had earlier lived 10 years in Alaska.