A murder and arson trial began Wednesday for a 34-year-old man who was seen jumping from the burning fourth-floor Pearl City apartment where a man’s body was later found in 2022.

Deputy Prosecutor Kyle Mesa told jurors in his opening statement that Demond Cox, a 33-year-old Pearl City resident and Turo car rental operator, allowed defendant Scott David Deangelo, who helped drop off the rental cars, to stay in Cox’s Pearl City apartment, but had “expressed a desire to have the defendant move out.”

Police testified that Cox’s body was found on the kitchen floor of his apartment with stab wounds on the night of the fire, Feb. 7, 2022.

Mesa said the evidence will show Deangelo killed Cox, set the apartment on fire before jumping out the window, then fled in Cox’s Mazda.

Mesa said residents and people on the street could hear what sounded like fireworks and glass breaking.

Deangelo is charged with second-degree murder, first- degree arson and firearm offenses.

Deputy Public Defender Titiimaea Taase said in his opening statement, “Scott Deangelo will tell you he is the one who stabbed Cox” but that he acted in self-defense.

Taase said it was Cox who attacked Deangelo first with a gun, rushed him with a knife, pinned him down, and tried to push a knife into him, and also threw beer bottles at Deangelo.

“He had to give up or fight back,” he said. “Scott Deangelo chose to live.”

Taase said the parties agree that Cox received stab wounds to the neck and shoulder. But he pointed out that Deangelo was also hurt, including burned hands, a mangled knee and cuts to his arms.

The attorney said it hurt his client to stand when he was found on the North Shore the following day, Feb. 8, 2022.

Taase said Cox appeared hostile to Deangelo after the defendant came home from a trip to Walmart, asking him where he had been and who had he talked to, and that Cox pointed a gun at Deangelo.

Mesa said Deangelo’s injuries were consistent with someone who jumped from a building. He was found with a Sig Sauer .22-caliber pistol in his waistband. Deangelo had also abandoned Cox’s car on the North Shore at 53-908 Kamehameha Highway, and was found in a rural lot at 55-004 Kamehameha Highway, according to Mesa.

Witness Kevin Shim testified that at the time of the incident, he was outside his nearby apartment building at 912 Lehua Ave., smoking a cigarette, when people around him told him to look up.

“The place was on fire,” he said. “I heard pows, sounded like fireworks, five pow sounds.”

“I heard glass,” he said. “By the time I turned, I saw someone drop to the ground from the third floor, fourth floor, counting the garage.” The building has a parking garage on the street level, and three levels of apartment units above that.

Shim said he heard people screaming, “He’s going to jump.”

Before the man jumped, Shim said he told the Pearl City Market owner to call the police.

Shim said he didn’t actually see the moment Deangelo jumped, but flames were coming from the window and he saw Deangelo when he was halfway down before hitting the ground. He landed on a bush and the curb next to the building driveway.

He testified: “I saw the person getting up, limping towards me. I walked over to assist, and he put the gun to his head and said, ‘Uncle, get away, get away.’”

Shim described the gun as short, similar to the type that police officers carry. Shim said the man was about 5-foot-9, 170 to 180 pounds, and Spanish-looking.

He identified Deangelo, describing his attire in the courtroom — a light blue shirt and a dark gray jacket.

Three police officers testified about the video surveillance from nearby buildings, as well as police body-worn camera footage that showed flames coming from the window of the fourth-floor unit and two off-duty police officers responding, one pulling a fire hose.

Cox’s friend Nathan Conde told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser by phone from California that he and Cox met while working as mechanical engineers at the Chevron plant in Campbell Industrial Park.

Cox was entrepreneurial and ran the Turo business on the side, he said.

“His upbringing in Missouri was kind of bare bones,” but he put himself through college. He attended the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and in Hawaii he made generous donations to charity, buying toys and other items, Conde said.

Conde’s sister, Lauren Delany, said he was “really kind and pleasant and fun” and “just chill.” They were a part of a group of friends who traveled, hiked and swam together.

“He didn’t get the chance to have his own family, his own little kids. It’s just tragic,” she said.