BRUNSWICK, Ga. – The prosecution's opening statement in the trial of a Georgia man on trial in the 2007 molestation and slaying of a 6-year-old Christopher Barrios contained a graphic description of the boy's final days and hours.
David Edenfield, 61, is the first of three suspects to be tried in the Barrios' slaying, whose body was found wrapped in a trash bag and dumped by a road in 2007 -- one week after he disappeared.
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Prosecutor John Johnson told jurors as the trial began Wednesday that the boy was stripped and sexually assaulted by Edenfield and his grown son in their mobile home.
"Christopher Barrios didn't want to be there. He told them to let him go. He said, 'I want to leave; let me go; don't do this; I'm going to tell my parents,'" Johnson said in his opening statement.
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Johnson said Edenfield admitted in a taped statement to police that he helped his son choke the boy to death. He said Edenfield got sexual satisfaction from killing the child.
Edenfield's son, George, and wife, Peggy, are awaiting trial on related charges.
Edenfield's attorney, James Yancey, said Edenfield's confession was influenced by police questioning him, but he stopped short of saying Edenfield was coerced.
"You'll see the manner and and you'll see the mode in which the officer questioned him," Yancey said.
The first prosecution witness was Christopher's father, who called 911 when his son didn't come home that night.
"I told them my son hasn't come home and it's dark and he's missing," Barrios said.
A light-saber toy Christopher had been playing with was found outside the Edenfield's mobile home.
A massive search was mounted that began in the mobile home park that night and eventually covered all of Glynn County.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against both David and George Edenfield, but not Peggy, who has agreed to testify against her husband and son.
Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett and attorneys for both sides spent more than a week picking a jury from residents of rural Jeff Davis County, 90 miles northwest of Brunswick. The judge held jury selection outside of Brunswick because of pretrial publicity, but the case is being heard at the Glynn County Courthouse.
The jury selection of 12 jurors and two alternates was completed Tuesday afternoon. Jurors will be sequestered in Brunswick for the duration of the trial.