BATH — Tyon Shuron of Augusta was a jealous man who was angry that his girlfriend had been hired to pose for provocative photographs. He wanted to take them back.

So Shuron and his girlfriend drove to Richmond in late September 2019, according to prosecutors, to retrieve the images and kill the photographer, Andrew Sherman.

On Thursday, during opening arguments in Shuron’s murder trial at the Sagadahoc County Superior Court in Bath, Suzanne Russell, an assistant attorney general, previewed for the jury of eight women and seven men the case the state has laid out against Shuron, who was arrested in 2020 in connection with Sherman’s death. His girlfriend, Chanda Lilly, was also arrested.

But Darrick Banda, one of Shuron’s lawyers, said in his opening statement that prosecutors have no evidence linking Shuron to Sherman’s death, and that Lilly, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge of robbery in this case and agreed to testify against Shuron, is an unreliable witness who has issues with mental illness and veracity.

If Lilly knows details, Banda said, it was because she was at the scene of Sherman’s murder and Shuron was trying to protect Lilly, even from herself, to his own detriment.

This is the longest outstanding murder case in Maine. Only weeks after Shuron and Lilly were arrested, the COVID-19 pandemic began shutting down businesses, government and schools across Maine and the nation, and imposed restrictions on people having contact with others.

On the first day of testimony Thursday, witnesses called by prosecutors — including two friends of Sherman, Richmond police officers and Sherman’s mother — described what happened the afternoon of Oct. 11, 2019, following the discovery of Sherman’s body, and the layout of Sherman’s home at 7 Kimball St., and the property on which it sat.

Jeff Sucidlo, one of Sherman’s friends, said he stopped at Sherman’s home after becoming concerned because he had not heard from him in more than a week and could not reach him by telephone, which was unusual.

When Sucidlo arrived, he found the door unlocked, which was not unusual. He said Sherman had been in a car crash that left him unable to get around easily, and he left the door unlocked so he would not have to get up to answer it when people stopped by.

Sucidlo called 911, bringing the Richmond police, who, when they examined the home, contacted the Maine State Police.

Sherman’s mother, Ruth, described the property, which she had sold in 2019. Her son lived in a mobile home on the property, and she had negotiated in the sale that he could stay for six months at no cost to give him time to find another place to live.

On cross-examination, Banda asked Ruth Sherman when she last saw and spoke to her son. She said that after consulting with a friend, she thought it was Oct. 3, 2019.

“You thought it was the day before you took a trip to Gorham, on Oct. 4?” Banda said.

“I said we tried to go back and figure out when,” Ruth Sherman said. “I said I thought it was, I won’t say it was.”

In February 2020, police arrested Shuron in connection with Andrew Sherman’s death, which had been deemed a homicide. Weeks later, Lilly was arrested. Both arrests followed the execution of search warrants at their Augusta residences.

At Shuron’s initial appearance in court, it was revealed Sherman had been dead for about 12 days before his body was discovered, putting his murder in late September.

Opening arguments in the trial came Thursday, a day after they had been scheduled to begin, because jury selection lasted three days, when two had been expected.

The trial is scheduled to resume Monday in Bath.

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