Fourteen witnesses were called Thursday, the first day of testimony in the first-degree murder trial of Jeffrey Wade Chapman. He is accused of killing Damon Galyardt, 25.
     Hunters found Galyardt’s body in a ditch on Saturday morning, Nov. 12, 2011. During the trial, jurors heard from one of the hunters, from law enforcement officers who investigated and from Dr. Edward Jones, the county coroner.
     Jones testified that Galyardt died after a bullet went through a lung and his aorta. It may have taken up to 10 minutes for him to die, Jones said. He set the time of death at 1 a.m. on Nov. 12, but said it could easily have been 10 p.m. on Nov. 11. The body had been moved, which added to the difficulty in pinpointing the time of death.
     The bullet was recovered during the autopsy Jones performed. It was sent to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation lab. KBI firearms expert Cole Goater  testified that it was a .32.
    A .32 shell casing that was also entered into evidence was tested, but Goater was unable to determine if the two were related or not.

      Friends of Galyardt testified in the afternoon, including Summer Hoss, who was three months pregnant with his child when he died. They lived together at 1105 Stone St. in Great Bend.
     Retired Great Bend Police Detective Denton Doze said after officers contacted Hoss once they believed the body was Galyardt. They later executed a search warrant of the residence. On Nov. 13, Hoss asked if they had found the shell casing. They hadn’t. She told them she had thrown one was in the trash, so they searched again. They found the shell casing and a counterfeit $50 bill in the trash.
     Under direct examination from Assistant Attorney General Steven Karrer, and cross examination from Chapman’s attorney Kurt Kerns, Hoss painted a conflicted picture of her boyfriend Galyardt.
     It was a portrait of a violent, paranoid and meth-addicted man who was would be gone for days at a time. He was prone to drastic mood swings, going from loving expectant father to having fits of rage.
     “We were having trouble because Damon was still doing drugs, meth, and we were not on the same level,” Hoss said. “He wanted to straighten up for the kid, I guess.” But Galyardt also believed Hoss was sleeping with their friend, Jeffrey Chapman.
    

     Chapman became a confidant for Hoss after her sister died in a car wreck in February of 2011. She described him as a “big brother.”
     Hoss said it was Chapman who stepped in and acted as a counselor. Chapman would go find an absent Galyardt, tell him to “go be a dad,” and bring him home.
     But Galyardt also thought Chapman was out to get him, and accused Hoss of sleeping with him. At one point, Galyardt told Hoss that Chapman said he was going to kill him.
     “I didn’t believe him,” she said.
    On Nov. 11, Hoss left the house with some girlfriends after arguing with Galyardt. “He was being mean and kind of confrontational, so we all just left,” she said.
     She came back the next morning and Galyardt was gone. It seemed odd, because he owned two pairs of shoes and both were in the house. A table in front of the couch and the rug under the table had been moved, and popcorn from the table was spilled on the floor. She found the shell casing in the kitchen, and threw it away.
     Police contacted her around 10 a.m., but they didn’t tell her that Galyardt was dead. During the day, she began hearing talk about a body found in a ditch.
     “I had a little bit of hope that they had the wrong person,” she said. It was at 5:45 p.m. before Hoss learned that Galyardt was dead.
     She tried to turn to her friend, Jeffrey Chapman, for support. He wouldn’t answer his phone.
     “I called him and I called him and he wouldn’t answer,” she said. She then reached him by using someone else’s phone, and concluded he’s been screening his calls. He told her he was out of town.
    

     Despite it all, it was clear Hoss still cared for Galyardt. The attorney presented her with a copy of a letter she had written to him and as she read it she broke into tears.
     Galyardt’s sister Christina Bieberle testified that her brother told her a few days before he died that someone had threatened to stab or shoot him and leave his body in a ditch.
     Michelle Detrich was with Galyardt on Nov. 11, when he nearly got caught after passing a counterfeit bill in Lyons. Both ran, but she was caught. Detrich said she was staying with Galyardt at his mom’s house. She was not aware of any threats or of Chapman being angry with Galyardt.
     “It wasn’t that way,” she said. She had stopped hanging out with Chapman because he wanted to quit using drugs and she didn’t.

     Jeanna Rader, who had testified at Chapman’s preliminary hearing, was called again to recall that she cleaned blood from the back seat of another person’s car on Nov. 12. Chapman had been driving; he told her he’d hit a dog, and asked her to clean up the mess.
“I remember about the dog,” she said, but she didn’t recall much more. “I honestly don’t remember. ... You guys can take it however you want to take it, but that’s the truth.” Rader may be called to testify again Friday morning.