The morning Gabriel Hesse called East Windsor police to report finding his father's bloody body in the older man's mobile home, he gave police a statement saying they had a good relationship — and noting pointedly that his father had an angry confrontation with a younger neighbor.

That information is from the testimony Tuesday of East Windsor police Officer Robert Butcher during Hesse's murder trial in Hartford Superior Court.

Tuesday was the first day of testimony in the trial, in which Gabriel, now 43, is accused of fatally stabbing and bludgeoning his father, Halsey Hesse Jr., 73, in the older man's mobile home on Fairway Drive in East Windsor in October 2019.

Shortly after presenting Hesse’s statement to the 12-member jury, prosecutor Amy Bepko began presenting testimony that raised questions about it.

Ernest Wilson, who lives in the mobile home park at 255 South Main St. in East Windsor, a short distance from where Gabriel Hesse then lived, described overhearing an argument between Gabriel and his father a short time before he learned of the older man's death.

Wilson said the father and son had driven from Gabriel's trailer in his father's almost new, dark blue pickup and stopped in a parking lot near Wilson's home.

He said he heard Gabriel's father say in a raised voice that "he was done with him and to get out of his truck."

Gabriel got out and walked back to his trailer, Wilson said.

Because authorities believe Gabriel Hesse killed his father, the older man's name isn't being used during the trial in accordance with a Connecticut law making the identities of domestic violence victims confidential. But Halsey Hesse's name was made public after his body was discovered.

Also testifying Tuesday was Halsey's next-door neighbor, Ryan Veilleux, who acknowledged having had an angry argument with Halsey after finding garbage cans in front of his car.

"I was absolutely upset," Veilleux testified.

He said he asked who had put the garbage cans there, and Halsey, whom Veilleux knew by the nickname "Sunny," opened a window and said he would be right there.

He said Halsey explained that he couldn't walk well, which Veilleux said was true. But Veilleux acknowledged that he continued to insist that Halsey shouldn't leave the cans blocking Veilleux's car.

Veilleux also testified, however, that the argument wasn't typical of his relationship with Halsey, which he described as a friendship.

"He was like my grandfather," Veilleux said. "If he had anything to help me with, he would help me."

He said Halsey had told him he was in Vietnam. Veilleux said he was interested and would ask about that.

He also said they "put up a garden" together — and that Halsey later helped him take it down when Veilleux's job as a forklift operator took so much time that he couldn't keep up with the gardening.

Police found shoe prints in the blood on the floor of Halsey's mobile home, and Veilleux testified that he gave police "all my shoes," then realized he had more and turned those over as well.

When the prosecutor asked whether he had killed Sunny, Veilleux replied, "No, I did not."