The First Degree Murder Trial for a Kansas City, Ks man accused of killing a Manhattan man in September of 2013 continued Wednesday afternoon in Riley County District Court.

Anthony Nichols is charged with suspicion of First Degree Murder in the September 7, 2013 death of John Burroughs, 68, Manhattan.

The State called several people to the stand Wednesday who testified on a number of different topics including Investigator Alan D.Riniker who was one of the RCPD Crime Scene Investigators who investigated Burroughs’ trailer home shortly after Burroughs was found dead on September 8th. Riniker testified that Burroughs was found dead lying in the fetal position on the floor of his bathroom with what appeared to be a stab wound to his left side underneath the armpit.

After Burroughs body was sent to Frontier Forensics in Kansas City, Kansas, where an autopsy was conducted, Riniker was informed that Burroughs had also suffered a gunshot wound. Riniker then returned to Burroughs’ residence on Sept. 9th to search for a bullet hole, shell casing or anything else that could determine whether or not the shooting took place in Burroughs residence, but he was unable to find any evidence to make that connection.

Riniker also participated in the investigation at Nichols apartment on September 11th in Kansas City where a cell phone believed to belong to Nichols was located along with a revolver hand gun and other items. The cell phone was turned over to Sgt. William Arnold of the Junction City Police Department who specializes in recovering information from cell phones.

Arnold was next on the stand and explained to the jury how he was able to collect multiple pieces of information from the cell phone, including tracking it’s whereabouts the night Burroughs was murdered September 7th, 2013.

According to Arnold the cell phone connected to cell towers in Junction City most of the day on September 6th, but at 9:33 p.m. it pinged off a tower in Ogden and then towers in Manhattan from that time to 12:51 a.m. September 7th when it pinged a tower near Fort Riley. After that it continued to ping off of towers in Junction City until 3:18 a.m. on Sept. 7th when it pinged a tower near the Kanza Prairie which could indicate he was traveling on I-70. Over the next couple of hours it pinged off towers in Topeka and Lecompton/Lawrence. The rest of the day on Sept. 7th the cell phone continued to ping cell towers in the Kansas City metro area.

According to that information it placed Nichols cell phone in Manhattan around the time of Burroughs death, but it does not prove that Nichols was carrying the cell phone or that Nichols was in Burroughs residence.

The trial is expected to continue Thursday morning at 9 a.m. in Riley County District Court. The State is expected to call Tina Love to the stand first thing in the morning. During opening arguments Tuesday the State told the Jury that the case depends on the testimony of Love, who was the only link between the defendant and Burroughs.

The trial is expected to run through Friday and JCPost will continue to follow the trial and provide updates as they become available.