Prosecutors wrapped up their portion of Michael D. Marchalk’s murder trial Tuesday afternoon after calling 15 witnesses to testify.

Marchalk’s public defender, Andrea L. Thompson, was set to present her defense beginning at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Schuylkill County President Judge William E. Baldwin said the jury might begin deliberating by Wednesday afternoon.

Michael Marchalk, 38, is charged with 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 in the baseball bat beating death of his father, Gary D. Marchalk, in his Barnesville home on June 18, 2017.

The killing happened as the two argued over Gary Marchalk’s refusal to give his son money to buy heroin, police say.

State police contend Michael Marchalk stole his father’s car and wallet after killing him, then drove to Philadelphia, where he caught a bus to Atlantic City. He was taken into custody there on June 23.

Thompson on Tuesday asked Baldwin to drop the second-degree murder and robbery charges; the judge declined.

Tuesday’s session began with continued testimony from state trooper Joseph W. Hall.

Questioned by Thompson, Hall replied that Michael Marchalk’s stepbrother Zach was “among many others” whose names came up during the investigation. Troopers also interviewed Zach’s brother, David, and their mother, Linda Marchalk.

Thompson also mentioned a home security video that showed Michael Marchalk chasing someone around the driveway a couple of weeks before the killing. Hall said police believe it was his stepbrother, Zach.

Atlantic City Sgt. John Waddell testified about receiving a be-on-the-lookout for Marchalk on June 22, 2017, from Pennsylvania state police, and how his officers spotted Marchalk walking down the boardwalk on June 23, 2017. Four officers followed him, and Marchalk was taken into custody. He was cooperative, Waddell said.

He said Marchalk said he had planned to run, but decided not to because of the number of police around him.

Waddell said Marchalk was medically cleared to be placed into the county jail until being returned to Pennsylvania.

State police Cpl. Eric R. Schaeffer testified that he was a criminal investigator at the time, and brought Marchalk back to Pennsylvania to be arraigned before District Judge Christina M. Hale of Frackville.

Jurors watched a television news clip of Marchalk responding to a reporter’s question as he left Hale’s office.

“I’m sorry for what I’ve done. There was no excuse for it. If I could exchange my life for his, I would,” Marchalk told the reporter.

Schaeffer said that back at the Frackville state police barracks, Marchalk was “stimulated and talkative.”

The information he offered included that his father hit him twice with the baseball bat as they argued on Father’s Day, but that the hits didn’t hurt him, and “didn’t justify what he did,” Schaeffer said.

Marchalk also told troopers he took a bus from Philadelphia to Atlantic City; that he slept under the boardwalk; and that the heroin in Atlantic City was “garbage.”

State police Cpl. Leo Luciani testified that he drove Marchalk from the Frackville barracks to Schuylkill County jail after his preliminary arraignment before Hale.

Their conversation was recorded by the vehicle’s camera system.

Marchalk said he thought authorities would need to prove premeditation to convict him of first-degree murder.

He told Luciani he was “kind of a coward at heart.”

“I don’t want to face all those people in court,” he is heard saying.

They also discussed the death penalty, with Marchalk saying, “If I deserve it, I deserve it.”

He also said “everything got messy” after his father filed for divorce from Linda Marchalk. Gary Marchalk drank and gambled, he said.

Michael Marchalk also talked about being a process server when he lived near Pittsburgh with his girlfriend, about their breakup, his drug habit and moving back to Schuylkill County.

After a silent gap in the recording, Luciani asked Marchalk, “Is everything you’re saying the truth?

“Every word of it,” Marchalk responds. “I’m a firm believer in whatever it is, I have to take my medicine.”

Trooper Manuel Cabrera-Maldonado testified he accompanied Luciani in taking Marchalk to the county jail, and brought Gary Marchalk’s Ford Fusion from Philadelphia to the state police impound lot in Schuylkill County.

Trooper Robert D. Wessner Jr., a forensics instructor, testified he processed Gary Marchalk’s car, finding his wallet, with his driver’s license, under the driver’s seat, and a turnpike ticket stamped with a date of June 18, 2017, and a time of 11:59 p.m. in the center console.

Hall had testified that police traced Michael Marchalk’s route to Philadelphia through credit and debit card use — one card belonging to Gary Marchalk and two others being held jointly by Gary Marchalk and Linda Marchalk — and through surveillance video at gas stations and ATMs.

Thompson suggested to Hall that Marchalk wasn’t trying to hide because he took the turnpike, not back roads, to Philadelphia.

Also testifying was state police forensic scientist Sarah Case, who testified she examined stains on the clothing Michael Marchalk was wearing and blood from the baseball bat.

None of the bloodstains contained enough material to be used to identify the person from whom they came.

Case sent the materials to the state police DNA lab, where scientist Verity Wagner examined them. She was able to identify DNA on the end of the bat as Gary Marchalk’s.

There was not enough material in the handle of the bat to be able to identify from whom it came.

Schuylkill County Sheriff’s deputy Gerard Daley testified that when he took Michael Marchalk from the courthouse after his preliminary hearing on July 20, 2017, across the street to the jail, a reporter asked him if he had intended to kill his father.

“No, I didn’t. I had no choice,” a video clip of the news program shows him saying.