NATCHEZ  — The prosecution began building a case Thursday that claims John Christopher Case, 29, murdered Billy Dean Arnold, 38, over a woman.

The prosecution argued Case, of 17 Beechwood Lane, murdered with forethought Billy Dean Arnold Jr., 34, Melanie Road, by beating him to death with his fists.

The prosecution said Case proposed to a woman named Carisa Cowan about a month and a half before the April 1 incident. Some time later, they said, Cowan moved out of the house she shared with Case.

Sometime later, Assistant District Attorney David Hall said, she started conversing with Arnold, and they developed a relationship. Arnold and Case did not meet each other until the night of March 31, when they met at a bar downtown, witnesses testified.

Hall said Case and Cowan went to a bar for a drink where they met Arnold. Threats were exchanged, one witness testified.

Lacie Hall, who was related to Arnold through marriage, testified she saw Arnold and Case at the bar.

“(Case) told him, ‘If you don’t leave my old lady alone, I’ll kick your ass,'” Hall said.

Case and Cowan later went to Case’s Beechwood Lane home, and Arnold came to the house sometime later, the prosecution said.

J. E. Smith, Case’s next-door neighbor, testified he and his wife were awakened at about 2 a.m. by the sounds of a woman screaming. Smith said he heard several thuds and went to investigate. He said he saw Arnold lying face-up on the driveway, blood covering his face.

At about the same time, Case called 911 on a cell phone.

A recording of the call was played as evidence in Thursday’s proceedings.

At the beginning of the recording, Case was urgent but collected, but as time progressed, he sounded more panicked.

“I need an ambulance at 17 Beechwood now,” the recording begins. “I have a man down in my front yard. If he ain’t dead…”

Arnold was breathing but gurgling, Case says on the recording. He says he hit Arnold three or four times.

“A guy pulled up in my yard running his mouth to me, and I hit him,” Case says on the tape. “He has been aggravating my fiance for the past two weeks. He went limp after about the third time I hit him.”

In a Natchez Police Department statement, paraphrased after Case’s arrest by an investigator, Case said Arnold came at him “aggressively.” No mention of Arnold’s aggression was made on the 911 recording or to police on the scene, witnesses testified.

Adams County Coroner James Lee testified Arnold died of blunt force trauma to the head and face. He said when he saw Arnold at the emergency room, he was “completely” covered in blood “there was a gross amount of blood on the body.”

State witnesses Cowan and State Medical Examiner Steven Hayne are scheduled to testify in today’s proceedings.

District Attorney Ronnie Harper and Judge Forrest “Al” Johnson have said they expect a verdict today.