Weeks before he beat to death his father, Michael D. Marchalk stood at the foot of Gary D. Marchalk’s bed in the middle of the night, knife in hand, and contemplated whether he should kill him, his brother Matthew D. Marchalk testified Monday.

The testimony before a Schuylkill County jury marked the first day of Michael D. Marchalk’s trial on criminal homicide, murder of the first degree, murder of the second degree, murder of the third degree, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, robbery, theft, theft of a motor vehicle, access device fraud and recklessly endangering another person.

The trial resumed at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

State police believe Marchalk beat his father, a prominent Schuylkill County defense lawyer, to death in his Barnesville home with an aluminum baseball bat on Father’s Day 2017 after they argued about Gary Marchalk, 60, not giving his son money to feed his heroin addiction.

Attorney question

Michael Marchalk, 38, is being held without bail in the county jail. Until now, he represented himself. Recently, the court arranged for public defender Andrea L. Thompson to represent him.

Before jurors returned from their lunch break Monday, Michael Marchalk told President Judge William E. Baldwin he again wanted to be his own lawyer.

Baldwin advised him of the gravity of his charges, and that he faced life in prison. He needed to be represented by someone knowledgeable in the law, he told Marchalk.

Marchalk relented and agreed to keep Thompson.

Deputy Attorney General Rebecca A. Elo and Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher P. Phillips are prosecuting the case.

In her opening statement, Elo described how Gary Marchalk “gave and gave and gave” to his son — money, support, time.

Michael Marchalk, she said, “took and took and took.”

“At the end of the day, when his father had nothing left to give, he took his life,” Elo told the jurors.

Thompson did not give an opening statement.

Blamed father

Matthew Marchalk was among the witnesses prosecutors called to testify.

Matthew, who said he had come from a drug rehabilitation program to appear in court, said his older brother struggled with addiction and had moved back to Schuylkill County from his home near Pittsburgh in November 2016 after breaking up with his girlfriend.

Their father had paid for Michael’s house and paid the bills, but stopped after Michael became addicted, Matthew testified.

Michael moved in with Matthew in a house Gary and his wife, Linda, owned in Frackville.

But the situation was not good for Matthew, who struggled to stay off drugs. Michael, he said used drugs in the house.

“We butted heads quite a bit,” he testified.

Michael, in May 2017, stayed with Gary for a while when Matthew was in rehab.

It was during that time, Matthew testified, that Michael told him about waking in the middle of the night and going into his father’s bedroom with a knife.

Matthew said his brother, who moved back in with him after the incident, had spoken of wanting their father dead, and suggested a life insurance policy would expire soon.

“He felt that my dad didn’t help him with anything in his life,” Matthew testified.

He also said Michael believed their father blamed him for the suicide of their mother when Michael was 17.

Matthew said he couldn’t recall any actual violence on Michael’s part toward Gary, except for an argument years ago in which Michael threw something at him.

The incident

Michael had stayed with Gary the weekend of June 17-18, planning to go to rehab on the morning of June 19.

He called Matthew the evening of June 18, asking for Suboxone, a drug used to wean heroin addicts from the substance, so he wouldn’t be “sick” at rehab.

Matthew testified that Michael told him he’d asked their father for money to buy drugs, and that Gary had “thrown” $38 at him, saying it was all he had.

He went to his dealer, a man called “Rabbit” in Hazleton, but was given crack instead of the heroin he craved.

Matthew told him he didn’t have any Suboxone.

It was after Gary failed to return texts or calls, and didn’t show up for a meeting the next morning, June 19, that Matthew went to the house on Pear Street in Barnesville. He saw his father’s truck in the driveway, and knew Michael had been using it. He went to a neighbor’s house and asked him to go with him to the house.

The neighbor, Joseph Gulden, later testified he did just that.

The men went into the house and found Gary’s Ford Fusion gone from the garage and his body on the floor in the blood-spattered master bedroom.

Matthew dabbed his eyes with a tissue as he spoke about finding his father’s body.

They returned to Gulden’s house and called 911. Gulden’s girlfriend, a nurse, went to see if Gary was still breathing, both men testified.

On cross-examination, Thompson asked Matthew if he had heard his stepbrother, identified only as Zach, threaten to kill Gary. Matthew said he had not, but answered Thompson’s next question that yes, his father did have concerns about Zach.

Matthew also admitted he had sent his father an email in which he said he was going to kill Michael.

Matthew said he hadn’t meant that literally.

Crime photos

Jurors also listened to testimony from forensic pathologist Dr. Samuel D. Land, who described Gary’s injuries and showed projected autopsy photographs of them to jurors.

Michael did not visibly react as he looked at those photos and crime scene photographs that state police Cpl. David Dupree, had taken.

Land testified that Gary died of blunt-force trauma to the head.

He suffered at least three blows to the head and had large bruises on his back and shoulder.

“These were devastating blows to the head. The head was crushed. This would have taken a lot of force,” Land said.

Toxicology reports indicated there were no alcohol, medications or controlled substances in Marchalk’s blood, he said.

Dupree, who documented the scene and gathered evidence, testified about the copious blood spatter, some of which was found 10 to 12 feet away.

A large pool of blood was under Gary’s head, and large swathes were on the sheets.

There was blood on every object in the room, on the ceiling, and on a wall in the hall outside the bedroom, he said.

Wife’s testimony

Gary’s estranged wife, county Treasurer Linda Marchalk, testified the couple married in 2007 and separated in the first week of May 2017 after years of arguing about their children, her two sons and his two sons.

Gary sent her an email about letting Michael move back in that weekend, “against his better judgment,” she said.

Linda said her relationship with Michael was “civil” and that she never saw any violence between father and son.

Under questioning by Thompson, Linda said that in April, she had picked up Zach because he was having a bad day and she thought talking might calm him. He punched her car window, breaking it.

When she pulled into the driveway of the home she and Gary shared in Barnesville, Gary was in the driveway. When he saw the window, he got the baseball bat he kept in the garage. Linda said she told Zach to get back in the car, and they left.

She said Gary kept bats in the garage and the bedroom for protection.

Also under questioning by Thompson, Linda said Gary gave her a black eye when they were arguing several years ago.

She also said Gary was unhappy that she was going out the night of Saturday, June 17, and called her many times.

Although they were separated, the couple was still working at saving their marriage. Linda testified that her last communication with Gary involved him telling her he would attend a marriage counseling session on the evening of June 18.

Trooper Joseph W. Hall testified about the unauthorized use of credit and debit held jointly by Gary and Linda Marchalk. He tracked the use of the cards from Tamaqua to Philadelphia from about 11:30 p.m. June 18 through the next day.

Troopers testified at previous hearings that they believe Michael took his father’s car and drove to Philadelphia, and from there traveled by bus to Atlantic City, where he was caught by police on June 23.