By RYAN CHRISTNER

rchristner@dailynews.net

OSBORNE -- Emotions ran high Wednesday at the trial of Salina resident Kenneth Eugene Wilson as the wife of slain Portis resident Jeffery Scott Noel took the stand and testified about the events of March 25, 2008, the day her home was burglarized and her husband was found murdered inside her home.

Carol Noel had noticeable difficulty speaking throughout the exchange, which occurred immediately following opening statements by Attorney General Steve Six and Wilson's attorney, Paul Oller of Hays.

In his remarks, Six laid out the picture presented during pretrial hearings in December.

On the day of the murder, he said, Scott Noel went about his daily chores around the family farm, caring for his herd of cattle.

While he performed his duties, an intruder broke into his home, collecting $50 left on a table and a cell phone and removing one of Noel's guns from a case near the kitchen.

When Scott returned home for lunch, Six continued, he was met inside the kitchen by the intruder, who forced him onto the floor, bound his hands behind his back and shot him to death with his own gun.

Flashing back before the murder, Six introduced the jury to Wilson, who in March 2008 was living in Salina with his wife and extended family.

Wilson and his cousin, Delbert McBroom, had taken to traveling throughout the state, Six said, looking for work or land on which to plant an herbal supplement.

What they actually were doing, he said, was committing a string of burglaries in north-central Kansas.

What was left during some of those burglaries were cigarette butts that did not belong to the residents of the homes.

Genetic information extracted from cigarette remains found at the Noel home and a burglarized residence in Nebraska, Six said, match that of the defendant. The evidence, he told the jury, is strong enough to support a conviction.

"The state is going to try to play a game," Oller responded in his opening statement, "a game of connect the dots. At the end of the day, those dots just don't add up."

The cigarette at the Noel crime scene was found "almost as if it had been placed" at the home, he said.

Add to that the breakdown of Wilson's car in Missouri during a trip with his cousin to find land suitable for planting ginseng root the day before Noel's murder, and "at the end of the day, we believe there will be reasonable doubt as to whether Mr. Wilson was involved in any burglaries," Oller said.

Carol Noel's was the first of 10 witness testimonies presented during the opening day of Wilson's trial, scheduled to last until May 22. He is charged with the premeditated first-degree murder of Noel, aggravated burglary of Noel's residence, burglary of a home in Downs and criminal possession of a firearm.

As the first witness called by the prosecution, Carol Noel walked the jury through what she could remember about that day.

The morning began like many others, she explained, as she and her husband, a large man in good physical condition, awoke early before heading to work -- she at a bank in Smith Center and Scott around the family farm caring for their herd of cattle.

That was the last time she spoke with her husband.

Carol said she returned home early from work that day. She and Scott had plans to drive to Beloit to retrieve a pickup in need of repair.

Scott Noel's vehicle was parked in its typical spot next to the house, and all seemed normal until she entered her home. She could tell, as she looked past her living room into her kitchen, that the tablecloth had been removed from the kitchen table and the nearby chairs had been knocked onto the floor.

Entering the kitchen, Carol said she saw something much worse on the floor.

She approached the subdued body of her husband, knelt next to him and noticed his bonds.

While struggling to understand what was happening, Carol said that was when she realized her husband was no longer alive and called 911.

An audio account of the conversation between Carol and the 911 dispatcher who answered her call was then played for the jury, the hysterical cries on the recording triggering audible emotional outbursts from members of the audience.

With the most emotional testimony completed, prosecutors continued with their next nine witnesses -- residents of rural homes in northwest Kansas and southwestern Nebraska burglarized on various dates in March 2008.

Many of the burglaries testified about by the witnesses showed similarities in how the crimes were carried out, such as missing pillowcases that were used, presumably, to transport stolen goods.

Each witness was shown photographs of items recovered by police during a search of Wilson's home after his arrest in July.

Several items were identified -- in the case of Beeler resident Bernice Blakely, nearly 40 pieces of jewelry -- throughout the day.

The trial continued this morning at the Osborne County Courthouse.