Key witness testifies in Seelinger murder trial

Jurors on Tuesday afternoon got to hear from the mother of Decorah resident Jacob Seelinger.  Seelinger faces a charge of first degree murder in last July's death of David Hansen, who was Calista Seelinger's boyfriend.

Prior to last July 12th, Calista Seelinger had gotten a no contact order enforced against David Hansen because of physical abuse charges.  However, she admitted she was living with Hansen on July 12th and that he "threw me around," but she didn't tell her son that news.  Nevertheless, she said Jacob was mad at Dave that night.  When she and her son arrived at Hansen's house after visiting the County Fair, she testified she went into the house and asked Hansen to come outside to try to calm down Jacob.  "Then it escalated," she testified.

Defense Attorney James Metcalf has told jurors Jacob Seelinger's defense is that his friend Dalton Adam was responsible for Hansen's death.  Calista Seelinger testified Tuesday afternoon that Adam threw the first punch, "then everything gets blurry from there."

Special prosecutor Scott Brown questioned Calista Seelinger about her call to 9-1-1 the night of the assault, saying both Jacob and Adam were bashing in Hansen's head.  But Calista replied, "I don't remember saying a lot of that."  She said she had not only been drinking all day that day, but was smoking meth at the time.  "I was very mad and very high," she said.