Diane Marsh listens tearfully to the opening statement made by prosecutor Shawn Jensvold, a deputy Pima County attorney, at the start of the first-degree murder trial of Marsh in the death of her 5-year-old son, Brandon Williams. The trial began Wednesday.

James Gregg / Arizona Daily Star

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Up until September 2006, Diane Marsh did right by her son. She gave the autistic 5-year-old his medicine, took him to school, to counseling sessions, to doctors. Her house was filled with children's toys, books and movies.

All of that changed, though, when she took a homeless couple, Flower Tompson and Mark Moss, into her home, defense attorney Steve Sonenberg said Wednesday.

First, Marsh and the boy dropped off the map.

Then the boy died.

Wednesday was the first day in the first-degree murder trial of Marsh, a 41-year-old veteran of Operation Desert Storm.

During opening arguments, Deputy Pima County Attorney Shawn Jensvold told jurors that Marsh's son, Brandon Williams, died as a result of a skull fracture to the back of his head.

Although the boy regularly threw tantrums in which he banged the front of his head on floors and cabinets, doctors have determined he could not have caused the injury to himself, Jensvold said.

Jensvold told jurors Tompson called 911 on March 21, 2007, after Brandon stopped breathing. Resuscitation efforts failed and Brandon died at Northwest Medical Center.

Paramedics who went to Marsh's North Side home called the Pima County Sheriff's Department because they saw marks on Brandon's wrists, ankles and feet that indicated he had been tied up and burned.

When detectives interviewed Marsh, they didn't know about the fatal skull fracture, so they focused on the obvious injuries, Jensvold said.

At first, Marsh said the boy injured his feet by jumping around on rocks, but she eventually admitted she'd dipped them in hot water to calm him down, Jensvold said. She also said she'd tied him to a bed frame.

In addition, Marsh told detectives she had been giving Brandon adult sleeping medication for approximately a month at Tompson's suggestion, Jensvold said.

The autopsy revealed that Brandon had 1.5 milligrams per liter of diphenhydramine in his system; 5 milligrams per liter is lethal for most adults, Jensvold said. Diphenhydramine is an antihistamine found in medications like Benadryl and Nytol.

Marsh never mentioned Brandon's head injury, Jensvold said.

Sonenberg told jurors that his client was suffering from depression and fibromyalgia, a painful condition that affects people's muscles, tendons and ligaments, when she met Tompson and Moss through a mutual friend.

Being in a vulnerable position, she invited the couple into her home to help her with household chores, transportation and with Brandon, Sonenberg said.

In addition to dropping out of sight, other strange events soon began to happen, Sonenberg said.

Marsh obtained an order of protection prohibiting one of her older sons from contacting her, and she refused to see her father, Sonenberg said.

In the application for the order of protection, Marsh said satanic forces had taken over her son and he planned to kill her and Brandon, Sonenberg said. She also said he'd booby-trapped her home and had been researching mind control on the Internet.

Marsh, Tompson and Moss also began taking road trips with Brandon because the couple told Marsh a contract had been put out on Brandon's life, Sonenberg said.

Tompson told Marsh that they needed to see a "high priest" to protect Brandon and that the "district council" would reimburse them for their expenses, Sonenberg said.

Sonenberg told the jurors that they will see the receipts from their trips and they will also see Wal-Mart receipts that show the group spent hundreds of dollars at a time on junk food and DVDs.

Although words like "brainwashed" and "mind control" are provocative, Sonenberg urged the jurors to keep an open mind.

"The evidence will show, ladies and gentlemen, that Diane Marsh never raised a hand to him; she never struck him," Sonenberg said. "Diane Marsh did not kill her son, Brandon Williams. She did not do it, and it's not just me saying it; it's that there's no evidence of it."

Tompson, who was also charged with first-degree murder and child abuse, has pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse under circumstances likely to cause death or serious physical injury.

She has agreed to testify against Marsh in exchange for a prison sentence of between five and 15 years.