Darius Bishop was lying face down near a dugout on a Bozrah recreational field on Sept. 25, 2012, his arms extended above his head with his driver’s license in his left hand.

The 28-year-old Norwich man wore blue jeans and, despite the chilly weather, just a tank top.

The blood from a gunshot wound to the left side of his head had penetrated through his black knit cap, pooling on the ground beneath him. His sneakers were on the ground next to his bare feet.  

Jurors saw crime scene photos and heard testimony from first responders and civilian witnesses Tuesday as the trial of 37-year-old Dequan McKethan, who is charged with murdering Bishop, got underway in New London Superior Court.

The victim’s father, Kenneth Bishop, watched from the gallery, which was otherwise empty but for two newspaper reporters and a photographer.

At the defense table, McKethan, wearing khaki pants, a blue button-down shirt and a tie, glanced at crime-scene photos projected on a large screen a few feet away, then appeared to concentrate on the paperwork in his hands.

In the coming days and weeks, Kenneth Bishop said he is hoping to get answers about his son’s death, including why his black high-top sneakers were off his feet and why he was holding his driver’s license, which he usually kept in his wallet.

The trial is expected to last three to four weeks, and prosecutors Lawrence J. Tytla and David J. Smith, with assistance from Inspector Rhett D’Amico, will be calling witnesses for the next several days.

The state’s first witness, Oakdale resident Patricia Holdridge, testified she was driving to work on Route 163 and passed by the Charles Long Sports Complex at about 6:35 a.m.

She said something white caught her eye, and she noticed someone lying on the ground wearing blue jeans and a white tank top.

She thought the tank top was strange, Holdridge said, because the temperature was in the 30s that morning. She called 911.

State Trooper Chester Fowler, who was patrolling in the area, said from the witness stand that he arrived about 7 a.m. and saw the body.

“He was lying there in a wife-beater-style shirt,” Fowler testified. “His shoes were off next to the male. He was flat out laying on his stomach with his arms stretched out. In one of his hands was his photo ID.”

Fowler said he noticed the man had a gunshot wound to the head, which was covered by a black knit cap.

Later, investigators would find a .22-caliber shell casing beneath Bishop’s head that they would link, they said, to a Beretta pistol that McKethan was carrying when he was arrested in a Norwich traffic stop two days later.

Fowler said he called for a supervisor and EMTs, secured the scene, then took a series of pictures before anybody disturbed the body.

During cross-examination, defense attorney John T. Walkley questioned Fowler about a photo depicting Bishop’s gunshot wound after the knit cap had been removed, but before detectives from the state police Eastern District Major Crime Squad arrived.

Walkley noted also that somebody had removed the driver’s license from Bishop’s hand. Fowler said the responding troopers had removed it “so we could attempt to identify the body.”

Also testifying was Alexis Laffey, a volunteer emergency medical technician with the Bozrah Fire Department.  

Called to the scene for a “possible untimely death," Laffey said she checked the victim's vital signs before calling a physician at The William W. Backus Hospital to describe his condition.

The doctor pronounced Bishop dead at 7:20 a.m.

Laffey, who also is a funeral director, said that in her opinion, based on the lack of drag marks at the scene and the pool of blood beneath Bishop’s head, Bishop had died there.

She said that rigor mortis had not yet set in, but the blood had dried, which was an indication that he had been there about four or five hours.

Also testifying was Melvin “Earl” Lathrop, who lives on nearby Hough Road.

Lathrop said his English setters “went ballistic” in their kennels about 2:10 a.m. and that, when he went to check on them, he heard a “crack” that sounded like a tree branch breaking or a small-caliber firearm.

Bishop's girlfriend, Jonel Gilbert, testified that Bishop left her Norwich apartment in his Toyota Corolla about 10 p.m. She said he called her at 1 a.m. to say he was about to meet up with friends and shouldn't be much longer.

Gilbert said she went back to sleep, but when she woke about an hour and a half later and realized Bishop hadn't returned, she "blew up his phone" with voice and text messages.

Gilbert learned of Bishop's death the next day, but she testified she never knew McKethan and didn't know exactly what happened to her boyfriend.

Norwich patrolman Frank "Steve" Callender testified he was patrolling on Bill Street on Sept. 26, 2012, when he spotted a Toyota Corolla matching the one that officers had been instructed to look out for.

"I was told it was the victim's car," Callender said.

Detectives from the Eastern District Major Crime Squad retrieved the Toyota from the street, which was around the corner from McKethan's home at 61 Summit St.

Norwich Patrolman Avery Marsh testified that he was patrolling in the same area with his K-9 partner, Luther, and new recruit Kenneth Wright.

To set an example for Wright, Marsh, a field training officer, said he was trying to be "extremely proactive" when they came across a Nissan Maxima on Summit Street with no front license plate.

A dispatcher told him that the number on the back license plate came back to a Hyundai, indicating, perhaps that the operator of the Nissan was misusing the plate or the car was stolen.

The police watched from a distance and then followed a man, later identified as McKethan, as he drove away, but did not pursue him when they lost sight of the car. 

Marsh said they returned the next day, watched McKethan get into the car and pulled him over on Mechanic Street.

The stop led to a search of McKethan, who was carrying a small bag of cocaine in his right pocket, and of the car, where Marsh found a .22 caliber Beretta semi-automatic pistol and a cellphone.

Back at police headquarters, Marsh said he didn't ask McKethan about the gun, because state police were going to question him, but that McKethan said, "I can't believe I let my boy use my car, and now there's a gun in it."

An expert from the state is expected to testify that firing pin impressions on shell casings test-fired from the handgun matched the impressions on the casing found at the crime scene.

McKethan's attorney has indicated that he plans to have his own expert examine the gun later this week.

When the trial resumes Wednesday, the prosecution is expected to call crime squad detectives and civilian witnesses.

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter: @KFLORIN