Witness: 'I could hear the babies screaming' WATCH THE VIDEO

The expression on Wesley Coonrod's face did not alter as he listened to testimony from witnesses recounting how they "heard the babies screaming" as they attempted to save his children from their burning home, while the defendant stood on the sidewalk in his underwear asking for cigarettes. 

After traveling Thursday morning to Apt. A at 150 Lafayette Street in Greenfield, jurors heard opening statements from Wesley Coonrod's defense counsel William Mooney and Highland County Prosecutor Jim Grandey. 

Mooney said that, "There are a lot of the things about this case that are not in question. Things about which there is absolutely no doubt, one of which is, this is a real tragedy. By any definition, what happened at 150 Lafayette Street on March 7 of this year was a tragedy. It will remain a tragedy, and nothing will ever change that."

He went on to say that the jury will hear a lot from the prosecution about how Coonrod acted the morning of the fire, but that jurors should consider that no one knows how one will react in the face of tragedy until you encounter it. 

"I think we all think 'What would I do if my kids were in there?' What we conjure up in our minds is what we hope we would do. We don't know what we would do until we are confronted with that." 

Mooney went on to say that there may be evidence to show a fire that took place at one of Coonrod's previous residences may have started in a toy box as a result of "little fingers" and that there is a "classification of fire-starters as a juvenile fire starter."

During Grandey's opening statements, he read Coonrod's seven-count indictment, which was the result of the March 7 fire that killed his children, Thomas, 4, and Stephen, 3. Grandey noted that Thomas had celebrated his 4th birthday the day of the fire.

Coonrod could face the death penalty if convicted on the charges of aggravated murder. He is also charged with aggravated arson, a felony of the second degree; two counts of murder, unclassified felonies; and two counts of child endangering, felonies of the third degree. 

Grandey told the jury that over the next few days they will hear witness testimony and evidence, many of which is circumstantial. Grandey likened the case to a patchwork quilt, where after putting together piece after piece, at the end, you have a clear picture of what occurred.  

"He made no effort. None whatsoever to try to help his little boys out," Grandey told the jury. "As a result of his actions, he not only endangered those children, he caused their deaths." 

Witness Benjamin Kelley Stockton, appearing on a material witness warrant, testified that he lived in Apt. B next to Coonrod the night of the fire, and that he tried to help save Thomas and Stephen.

Stockton said that he was asleep in the late evening/early morning of March 7 when he was woken up by neighbors banging on his door telling him that the building was on fire. After getting his own family out of the apartment, Stockton said he helped break a window in the front of the house to try to get inside. 

"I heard the babies crying and screaming," Stockton testified. 

Stockton said that he could not see once he was inside the apartment because the smoke was so thick, but he could see that the carpet was on fire and saw as it began to "climb" up the woodwork. He testified he would stay in the apartment as long as he could, go to the window and get a breath and go back inside. 

"I had to," he said. "I had to find them because I could hear the babies screaming."

He did not find them, he said, and eventually they stopped screaming. Stockton said he cut his arm and needed 16 stitches from entering the window, and he also suffered smoke inhalation.

At one point, he said, he went back to his own apartment and attempted to break through the wall with a hammer.

Stockton testified that he and other people asked Coonrod where the children were. Stockton was asked if Coonrod said anything to him.

"He asked me for a cigarette," Stockton said. 

When asked if Coonrod was in the courtroom and if he could identify him, Stockton said, "He's sitting right there, staring at me with his evil eyes." 

Defense counsel objected to the statement, which Coss sustained. Coss instructed the jury to disregard that remark. 

On cross examination, defense counsel Jerry McHenry asked Stockton how far he went in school and if he was employed. Stockton said he went to the eighth grade and then got his GED. He said that he was not currently employed. 

Stockton testified that he had seen Coonrod drinking earlier in the day but could not recall what time that was because, "I had been drinking too."

The jury then heard testimony from Jason Jenkins, who had been next door to the apartment with friends when he saw the smoke coming from the Coonrod residence. Jenkins said he knocked on the door to Apt. A and received no answer and then knocked on Apt. B, which woke up Stockton. 

Jenkins testified that he tried to get in the front door and windows, but they were locked. He then went to the back door after his girlfriend told him that someone was in the back yard. Jenkins said he located Coonrod on the back porch and that he was looking in the kitchen window. 

When asked what Coonrod was wearing, Jenkins said he was wearing boxers and nothing else. He also said Coonrod was "very clean" and that he did not have soot on him. However, Jenkins said, Coonrod had a smell of alcohol on him. 

"I asked him where his children were and he said he didn't know. I told him to get out of the way, and I tried to kick down the door," Jenkins testified.

Jenkins said that he and Stockton broke open a window in the front of the house, and he helped boost Stockton through the window. 

Jenkins said he asked Coonrod "25 to 30 times" where the children were. He said Coonrod either would not respond, would say he didn't know, or he would ask for cigarettes. At one point, Coonrod, he said, told them that the children were in the back bedroom where the three of them had been asleep. 

"I kept asking him over and over, 'Wesley, where are your kids?'"

When the children were eventually located, they were in a closet in the front bedroom. 

Although there were approximately half a dozen people attempting to get into the home, Jenkins said he doesn't know who called 911, and he estimated that it took the fire department half an hour to get there from the time he initially noticed the fire. 

Jenkins said that he did not call 911 because he was trying to find that kids. 

"You could hear the kids screaming," Jekins testified. "That's what made me and (Stockton) go in. We were trying to get them to come to the window and they just wouldn't come."

Jenkins said that when he and Kelley came out of the structure they were, "black from head to toe" with soot and smoke. 

While attempting to put water on the fire, Jenkins said he heard two separate explosions in the house. The second one, he said, knocked him out of the front door of the house. 

When firefighters arrived, they quickly made entry and located the children, Jenkins said. 

According to Jenkins, when a firefighter came out of the building with the first child, EMS was not yet on the scene. As the firefighter tried to exit the apartment, he fell to his knees, dropping the child. He then picked him back up and rushed him straight to a police cruiser, which then rushed the child to Adena Greenfield Area Medical Center. He then went back in and came out with the second child, Jenkins said. He laid the boy on a jacket on the sidewalk and the two began to perform CPR, but EMS arrived.

When asked where Coonrod was during this entire time, Jenkins testified that he was on the sidewalk, and that he did not attempt to help them enter the house, and that when his children were brought out, he did not attempt to go to them.  

When the second child was about to be taken away in the ambulance, Jenkins said he asked Coonrod if he was going to go with them. Coonrod then approached the squad, and he rode in the front seat to the hospital. 

Jenkins said that he knew Coonrod from growing up in the Greenfield area, and that he always thought he was good with his children. 

"He always had his kids with him," Jenkins said. "He was very good with his kids. He took good care of them."

Rhonda Lester, Jenkins' girlfriend, then testified she got a blanket to cover Coonrod. Earlier in the day, she said, she had seen Thomas and Stephen playing in the yard. 

Lester lost her composure a few times as she described hearing the children cry from inside the burning apartment.

"We heard the kids screaming ..." Lester said, but her voice broke and she covered her mouth, pausing a moment to cry. 

When Lester broke down some jurors had tears in their eyes. 

Lester testified that she went to her home and got a blanket to put on Coonrod. When asked by defense counsel to describe what Coonrod was like, she said, "Disbelief. Incoherent. Like he was in a trance."

When asked if Coonrod said anything to her, Lester said, "He asked me for a cigarette." 

When she put the blanket on him, Lester said she could smell alcohol on him.

The jurors also heard testimony from Matthew Unger, the property owner; Judy McCarty of Greenfield Carpet Outlet, where Unger purchased carpet for Coonrod's apartment; Phillip Bobb, who was the previous tenant in Coonrod's apartment, and Highland County Coroner Dr. Paul Terrell. 

The jury was asked to report back at 8:30 a.m. Friday, and testimony will be heard until the noon hour. The jurors will be dismissed for the weekend at that time. 

Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss said that the attorneys have indicated that the presentation of evidence is going more quickly than anticipated. The defense could begin presenting their case as early as Tuesday. Jurors could be deliberating either Wednesday or Thursday.

Due to a scheduling issue, the defense may present a witness prior to the end of the state's presentation of evidence. 

The court will also revisit a matter Friday regarding a motion allowing evidence to be presented regarding a fire that took place in a residence Coonrod occupied in February 2010. 

Coonrod and his children, according to Mooney's opening statements, had been living at 150 Lafayette Street because they had been displaced from their previous home due to a fire. After the jury had been dismissed, Grandey said that even though the defense intended to allege one of the children may have started the fire, Grandey said the fire investigator from the insurance company reported that a cigarette was the cause of the fire. Coss said that the defense could not rebut such testimony before the defense presented evidence. Grandey said that the testimony regarding the first fire they would present would go toward child endangering, due to the careless cigarette. 

Coss said he felt that was a thin argument and did not know if there was a sound matter of law that allowed the state to bring up the matter first. Coss said the matter should be put into the form of a motion and the court will address it Friday.