Defense Attorney Joe Munoz and William Allen Nutter in Wood County Circuit Court on Tuesday. Nutter is on trial for murder in the killing of his brother, Charles Ryan Cottle, on May 10, 2020, in south Parkersburg. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — Testimony was underway Tuesday in the murder trial of a man accused of killing his brother in their mother’s home in May 2020.

William Allen Nutter, 41, originally of 861 Grattan St., Chickopee, Mass., is on trial for murder in the shooting death of his brother, Charles Ryan Cottle, 29, on May 10, 2020 (Mother’s Day) at 1324 Broadway Ave. in south Parkersburg.

Additional charges of domestic battery and being a person prohibited from possessing firearms will also be considered.

The prosecution and defense presented their opening arguments to the four-woman, nine-man jury Tuesday morning in the court of Wood County Circuit Judge Jason Wharton.

Wood County Assistant Prosecutor Blaire Hudson, in her opening statement, said Cottle, who went by Ryan, died of multiple gunshot wounds at the hands of Nutter.

William Nutter, who is on trial for the murder of his brother Charles Ryan Cottle in May 2020, became emotional when hearing the recording of a 911 call the day of the incident which was played during the first day of the trial Tuesday. (Photo by Candice Black)

Nutter has just come back to Parkersburg after a relationship he was in ended and was staying at the home of his mother, Louisia Mae Cottle.

Cottle, who goes by Mae, testified she had gone out to run some errands, including doing a couple loads of laundry at a laudromat in Mineral Wells, on May 10, 2020, got back and asked Ryan Cottle to help with some things, hanging ferns she had previously bought for Mother’s Day and to put out the trash for pick-up the next day.

“Billy started raging inside and I don’t know why,” she said. “He was screaming and hollering.”

Throughout her testimony, Mae Cottle was teary and emotional as she recounted the events of that day.

Ryan Cottle went up to his room and was playing video games. Nutter was in the kitchen and everything had quieted down. Mae Cottle went upstairs to a bathroom and smoked some cigarettes.

Nutter was running up and down the stairs and kicking Ryan Cottle’s door open. He would then come into the bathroom yelling at her, Mae Cottle said.

“This went on for quite a while,” she said.

As to what he said, Mae Cottle said it was “screaming, yelling and cussing” mean things and she said it right back to him. Things got worse from there, she testified. Everytime Nutter kicked Ryan Cottle’s bedroom door open, he would just shut it.

The last time, he kicked open Ryan Cottle’s door and started yelling at Mae Cottle who had gone into her bedroom asking if she or Ryan Cottle had called the police on him. She said they did not.

She testified Nutter then hit her and her head bounced off of a doorframe.

Pictures were shown showing Mae Cottle with a busted lip and blood on her face, taken shortly after police arrived on the scene. Pictures were also shown of her a day later with bruising around her upper chest.

She could not say if it was a slap or if she was hit with a fist

A short time later she heard Ryan Cottle pulling out a crowbar from behind a dresser in his room as the door was open again. She did not see Ryan Cottle hit Nutter with the object.

The two brothers went downstairs quickly and a short time later, Mae Cottle said she heard clinking and clanking and then three shots. She heard silence for a little bit and ran downstairs.

She saw Nutter firing a gun into the kitchen and she left the house and drove to a neighbor’s to call for help.

Testimony showed there were two 911 calls made from the scene, one from the neighbor’s house and one by Nutter himself.

Defense Attorney Joe Munoz, in his opening statement, said they intended to show Nutter acted in self-defense and Ryan Cottle was the aggressor in this situation. He said the two struggled for the gun.

Munoz said Ryan Cottle stuck Nutter with a Spudbar (referred to by others as the crowbar), a pretty substantial piece of metal, which could be deadly if struck with the right way.

“Not a single one of (the state’s) witnesses will be able to get on the stand and tell you that Billy did not act in self-defense,” he said.

Munoz said it was reasonable when someone is struck with a Spudbar and confronted with a firearm they would struggle over the firearm and then respond with deadly force to protect themselves.

Munoz said Nutter plans to take the stand in his own defense later in the trial and tell the jury what happened.

Hudson, in her opening arguments, said the defendant’s story that he acted in self-defense just does not make sense that he was attacked by a knife, a sledgehammer and a firearm all at the same time, according to his 911 call.

“The defendant made the conscious decision to fire his Taurus 9 mm 11 times,” she said. “There were 10 shots that hit his brother. His gun jammed. He made the conscious decision to clear that jam and continue firing, killing Ryan Cottle.”

Thomas Worstell, day shift supervisor with the Parkersburg Police Department, was brought to the stand where he testified about the scene.

“When I arrived, it seemed chaotic. Ms. Cottle was running around the residence. I approached the house I knew where there was a shooting. I asked where the shooter was and Cottle was pointing,” Worstell said. “(Nutter) approached me with his hands up. He said ‘I was defending myself.’ I asked where his brother was, he said he was probably inside, he might be dead.”

Worstell said he observed an injury on Nutter’s back, he was shirtless at the time.

Duane Jones, technical assistant with the Wood County 911 Center, came to the stand and Wood County Prosecutor Pat Lefebure played a recording of one of the two 911 calls placed in reference to the incident.

Nutter was visibly emotional while the recording was playing.

An evidence technician for the Parkersburg Police Department, Keith Roberts, testified with information from his process of collecting the evidence from the scene. Lefebure presented several photographs to the jury and Roberts talked about the items pictured.

Roberts said he walked into the home and saw the handle of a firearm sticking out from a blanket that was on a recliner in the living room. A crowbar and pry bar were also found in the home, Roberts confirmed.

Ten casings were found and four fired bullets in the kitchen/dining room near the area where Ryan Cottle’s body was found. A green gun holster was also next to the body.

Photographs also showed a can of potatoes in an overhead cabinet where a bullet had struck the top and the bullet was shown inside the can.

Roberts said blood was found at the foot of the stairway and on the steps but no evidence of a struggle or any injuries was found upstairs.

Doug Sturm, investigator with the Wood County Prosecutor’s Office, photographed Nutter after he was arrested and confirmed a substantial injury on Nutter’s back.

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