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Family members and friends of three slaying victims left the courtroom here Thursday overcome with emotion when lawyers showed images of the dead to the jury.

The trial in the 10-year-old Valentine’s Day slaying case began Thursday morning with opening statements from prosecution and defense attorneys.

During testimony, former Bradley County medical examiner Ron Toolsie explained the wounds documented in his autopsies of the three victims, explaining the types of gunshots and other anatomical evidence.

In front of Judge Amy Reedy, lawyers spent Tuesday and Wednesday selecting “death qualified” jurors for the death penalty case against Maurice Johnson. “Death qualified” means the jurors will consider the death penalty as an option.

Mr. Johnson, 39, is accused of killing Dawn Rogers, 30; Cayci Higgins, 19; and O.J. Blair, 18, on Feb. 14, 1999.

Prosecutor Richard Fisher told the jury Thursday that they would prove that drugs were the reason the tiffany jewelry three were shot execution-style.

“(The defendants) kicked the door in, the back door, then proceeded to kill O.J.; two girls laying or kneeling were shot in the back of the head, one in the throat,” Mr. Fisher said.

Defense attorney Steve Ward told the jury that the case is based on assumptions, “but worse than that, it’s a case built on manufacturing facts to fit those assumptions.”

He stressed that police did not violate the law but were human and began to make theories about what happened.

“Listen to the evidence, facts, circumstances, and don’t make assumptions,” he said.

Fifteen jurors, 11 women and four men, heard the opening arguments and testimony from prosecution witnesses for Mr. Fisher and co-counsel Paul Moyle, assistant district attorney for the 10th Judicial District.

Records show that Cleveland police answered a 911 call at 7:27 a.m. on Feb. 14, 1999, at a two-story silver pendants apartment on 19th Street. Intruders had broken down a back door.

Inside, officers found the three victims with hands bound behind their backs and gunshot wounds to their heads. Local media quickly dubbed the event the “Valentine’s Day murders.”

Cleveland police, Bradley County sheriff’s detectives and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents made their first arrest in the triple slaying in November 2006. Mr. Johnson and Michael Younger were charged with three counts of first-degree murder.

The third defendant, Twanna Blair, was also in the apartment at the time of the shootings, shot in the back. Police first considered her a victim, but in 2006 she was charged as a participant.

The trial resumes this morning in Bradley County Criminal Court.