AUGUSTA — Dylan Ketcham used a gun he stole from his sister to shoot and kill his former friend and a machete he had hidden inside his coat to repeatedly slash and injure a former friend, a state prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.

Defendant Dylan Ketcham listens to opening statements Tuesday on the first day of his murder trial in the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. Ketcham is accused of murdering and attempting to murder two of his former friends in Gardiner in January 2020. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Jordan Johnson died after being shot in the head while Caleb Trudeau nearly lost his life and will have disabilities and potentially lifelong wounds, authorities say.

Ian L’Heureux, one of Ketcham’s defense attorneys, said Ketcham, 23, feared for his life after Johnson accused him of stealing his mother’s bike. Johnson had threatened to beat Ketcham with a baseball bat. And Ketcham was prepared to defend himself when Johnson and Trudeau both ambushed him near Quimby Field in Gardiner just after midnight on Jan. 25, 2020.

Ketcham is on trial for the murder of Johnson and attempted murder of Trudeau. He is also charged with elevated aggravated assault for his alleged attack on Trudeau. His jury trial got underway Tuesday morning, with opening statements from prosecutor Meg Elam, an assistant attorney general, and L’Heureux.

Elam said Ketcham and Johnson had exchanged text messages in the days and hours leading up to the confrontation, and Ketcham had prepared, for days in advance, to kill Johnson. He stole a handgun from his sister, fashioned a sheath inside his Carhartt-like coat in which he hid a machete and duct taped the treads of his boots, apparently to try to avoid leaving tracks.

During her opening statement to the jury Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Meg Elam gestures toward defendant Dylan Ketcham on the first day of his murder trial in the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. Ketcham is accused of murdering and attempting to murder two of his former friends in Gardiner in January 2020. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

She said Johnson, who was 22 at the time, agreed to meet Ketcham to settle a dispute near Quimby Field, a location chosen by Ketcham. The dispute involved Johnson alleging Ketcham had stolen his mother’s bicycle. When Ketcham arrived in the neighborhood, he was approached not just by Johnson but also the 21-year-old Trudeau. All three men were from Gardiner.

A confrontation ensued, in which Ketcham shot Johnson in the head. And then, Elam said, after Trudeau tried to wrestle the gun away from him, he reached into his coat and pulled out the hidden machete and used it to hack at Trudeau. Ketcham managed to get on top of Trudeau, slicing him with the machete on his head and multiple times on his arms, nearly severing his arms at his wrists. Police who found him on a porch in the neighborhood said Trudeau’s hands appeared to be about to fall off, held on only by skin.

Trudeau and Johnson were both unarmed that night, according to the assistant attorney general.

“As Caleb struggled with that gun after the defendant fired it, he didn’t realize one of the shots fired by Dylan Ketcham had pierced Jordan’s skull, and entered Jordan’s brain and would soon end his life,” Elam said to a jury of 16 at the Capital Judicial Center on Tuesday. “And he didn’t know the defendant was about to pull the hidden machete and attack him. That his former childhood friend, a young man he used to think of as a brother, would stand over him with that machete, as he lay on the pavement, and strike him over and over with the machete.”

Elam said Trudeau lost his job due to his injuries and can’t be the father he wants to be to his child.

L’Heureux said Ketcham, who police said told them he killed the other two men in self-defense, had reason to be fearful. He said Johnson and Ketcham had been arguing and Johnson suggested they meet in a secluded spot, though they ended up changing those plans.

Defense attorney Ian L’Heureux makes his opening statement to the jury Tuesday on first day of Dylan Ketcham’s murder trial in the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. Ketcham is accused of murdering and attempting to murder two of his former friends in Gardiner in January 2020. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

L’Heureux said Johnson and Trudeau orchestrated an ambush on Ketcham and talked about it the better part of the day of Jan. 24. In Facebook messages, Johnson told Trudeau that he had threatened Ketcham with a baseball bat and said he wished he would show up that night “so he could smoke him.”

Defense attorney Steve Smith, left, with defendant Dylan Ketcham on Tuesday during the first day of Ketcham’s murder trial at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. Ketcham is accused of murdering and attempting to murder two of his former friends in Gardiner in January 2020. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Johnson posted rap lyrics on social media stating, “I just really have murder on my mind tonight. So the vibes are right.”

The three met just after midnight, Jan. 25.

“When they met they did indeed attack him,” L’Heureux said of Johnson and Trudeau attacking Ketcham. “Evidence will show that Dylan Ketcham acted and reacted after being lured to this spot and being violently ambushed by Jordan Johnson and Caleb Trudeau.”

Ketcham admitted to police he went too far.

Johnson and Trudeau were found at about 1 a.m. Saturday outside a house in a quiet, residential neighborhood at the southern end of Lincoln Avenue after Trudeau had sought help. Gardiner police and emergency services were sent to the house, where they found Johnson who had been shot and Trudeau who had been cut.

Police found Johnson face down in the snow, unconscious, and with a gunshot wound in his head. He was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where he died Jan. 28.

Lincoln Avenue residents reported hearing loud noises and screams for help outside their home. One resident told police he saw a man standing over and striking another man who was laying in the road. He said he saw the man delivering the blows, whom police said they later learned was Ketcham, leave the scene by walking between neighbors’ houses.

A police dog followed the path the man had taken and police found snow pants, a coat and boots discarded along the way. They found him hiding in a barn nearby. Ketcham later told police he took off his clothing and boots because they were slowing him down.

The 6-foot-4-inch Ketcham, who has remained jailed awaiting trial, wore a suit and tie and had a closely cropped haircut in court.

Justice Michaela Murphy sits on the bench Tuesday for the first day of Dylan Ketcham’s murder trial in the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. Ketcham is accused of murdering and attempting to murder two of his former friends in Gardiner in January 2020. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

An unspecified “legal issue” prompted the afternoon court session to be postponed.

The trial broke for lunch around noon and was expected to resume an hour later. But at 1 p.m., instead of bringing the jury in, Justice Michaela Murphy summoned the lawyers from both sides to her chambers to talk.

After about an hour, the lawyers reentered the courtroom, conferred with their teams, then returned to the judge’s chambers again before emerging again. The jury was called back into the courtroom around 2:30 p.m. Murphy then told jurors a legal issue had arisen, and they were working hard to resolve it but that would take more time, so she released the jury for the day and directed them to report back at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

Murphy then asked lawyers for both sides to again join her in chambers.