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FORT PIERRE-Opening statements were given Wednesday morning at the Stanley County Courthouse in the jury trial of a Hamill man charged with murdering a woman in June 2017.

For the rest of the week, the state will try to prove that Chance Harruff is guilty of the first- or second-degree murder or manslaughter of Kristi Olson. Next week, the defense will make the case that Harruff did not kill Olson, and that no one else did, either.

Prior to her death, the 38-year-old Olson had lived in a house in Dallas, South Dakota, with her seven children and had an on-and-off relationship with the 48-year-old Harruff. At that time, Harruff was living in an apartment in Gregory.

Olson was found unresponsive in her bed by her daughter on June 1, 2017. EMTs were unable to open an airway, and a pulse could not be found when she got to the hospital. Later that day, resuscitation efforts were stopped, and Olson was pronounced dead.

Both sides of the case brought up in their opening statements that on the night before Olson’s death, Harruff had been driving to Dallas to see Olson, that he had broken and taken her phone, and that he had stopped at a gas station on the way back to Gregory. From there, the two narratives differ.

Prosecuting attorney Amy Bartling Jacobsen asserted that Harruff went to Olson’s house and punched her, leading to her death the next day. She noted that in the bottom of the dumpster at the gas station – which was closed at the time of Harruff’s visit – Olson’s broken phone was found in a garbage bag. According to Bartling Jacobsen, the hidden nature of the broken phone suggested that Harruff was trying to hide his guilt.

Defense attorney Raleigh Hansman, however, argued that the phone was hidden and disposed of not because Harruff was trying to cover up a murder, but because he was trying not to get caught for having been drinking and taking the phone. He was on parole at the time, and doing so would have been a violation. Hansman said that when Harruff last saw Olson, she was alive.

Hansman told the jury that the defense will be calling a doctor as a witness who will testify that Olson’s injuries were not consistent with a homicide and that sometimes people simply die without warning. To further bolster this, she noted that Olson had stomach and esophageal problems and was taking multiple medications for her symptoms.

“Determining cause of death is not always possible, even with an autopsy,” Hansman said.

Bartling Jacobsen said that the case began long before Olson’s death, when the two met in 2016.

According to Bartling Jacobsen, throughout their relationship, Harruff would frequently become angry at Olson, often to the point of violence.

Bartling Jacobsen cited multiple incidents of violence by Harruff against Olson throughout the relationship, some of which will be documented during testimony by text message conversations between Olson and one of her daughters.

In one such incident, Bartling Jacobsen said Olson texted her daughter that Harruff had choked her and tried to break her phone because he found out that Olson and her ex-husband had texted each other messages to the effect of “Merry Christmas.”

“As you listen to the testimony over the next several days, you’ll hear that the defendant has uncontrollable anger,” Bartling Jacobsen told the jury.

But Hansman said during her opening statement that the volatility went both ways, and that Olson had a history of violence, as well.

“Kristi was not a submissive wallflower,” Hansman said.

Hansman concluded her statement by encouraging the jury not to make up their minds before hearing all the evidence and testimony, not just that provided by the state.

“Keeping an open mind is the commitment all of you made to Chance when you took that sworn oath to become a juror,” she said.