NATCHEZ — After a morning’s worth of jury selection, Mary McQuarters went on trial for murder Tuesday.

In March 2008, a grand jury indicted McQuarters for the September 2007 murder of her boyfriend Pete Jackson at their Dumas Drive home.

After being seated, the jury heard from Natchez Police Department detectives, the Adams County coroner, an expert witness and others who knew McQuarters.

While local authorities did not become aware of Jackson’s death until Sept. 29, testimony given Tuesday indicates the wounds that ultimately killed Jackson were likely the result of a fight between McQuarters and Jackson on Sept. 28.

McQuarters was not arrested until Sept. 30.

Natchez Police Detective Jerry Ford interviewed McQuarters on several occasions and read two of her statements in court.

In a statement written by McQuarters on Sept. 30, after she waived her rights to an attorney, she described the fight.

Ford read to the court how McQuarters and Jackson fought over money that was owed to Jackson, when he became violent.

McQuarters statement said that after Jackson kicked and hit her on the head, he then knocked over a glass-topped table.

Ford said McQuarters used that glass to cut Jackson as she tried to leave the apartment.

Standing next to a shelf in their Dumas Drive residence, McQuarters then began to throw “everything breakable,” from the shelf including a Hypnotiq bottle and a ceramic angel, Ford said.

McQuarters statement also said that shortly after the fight she could see that Jackson was bleeding and asked if he wanted medical attention — he refused.

McQuarters then went outside where she told her nephew Patrick Conner, who had been living with McQuarters at the time of the murder, that she “did a bad thing.”

In November Conner was also indicted for Jackson’s murder but did not testify Tuesday.

According to her statement, Conner also asked Jackson if he wanted medical attention.

After he refused again, McQuarters left the house for a night of partying, Ford said.

Ford, reading from McQuarters’ statement, said she returned home late the next day and, as she was frying fish in the kitchen, thought it was odd she did not hear Jackson in the house.

Ford said McQuarters went outside to ask Conner about Jackson’s whereabouts and did not notice the blood around the house until she went back inside.

Both Ford and Coroner James Lee testified much of the house was covered in blood.

“In my opinion, this was a horrifying scene,” Lee said. “There was more than enough evidence to show a struggle.”

Lee testified the blood was readily visible in the kitchen and on the walls in the hallway leading to the bedroom where Jackson’s body was ultimately found.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne, called as an expert witness, testified Jackson ultimately bled to death from a stab wound on the back of his left forearm which cut his radial artery.

And while both Ford and Lee described the kitchen and hall as being virtually covered in blood, blood was noticeably absent from one area of the house — the bedroom.

Both men said it appeared as if Jackson’s body had been cleaned before it was found.

Circuit Court Judge Forrest Johnson, as well as attorneys working on both sides of the case, said they expect the trial to end today.

The trial will resume at 9 a.m. today.