The murder trial for 18-year-old Joshua Samuel Simpson of Rossville continued this morning in Walker County Superior Court in downtown LaFayette.

The teen is on trial for the beating death of 47-year-old Michael Warren Wyscaver of Rossville. Authorities be-lieve Simpson killed Wyscaver sometime around Aug. 15, 2008, after they got into an argument.

Wyscaver’s body was discovered about two weeks later in an abandoned house at on West Pine Street, which is near the victim’s residence. He had died of blows to the head.

Dr. Douglas Posey, associate medical examiner with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s headquarters in De-catur, testified Wednesday that Wyscaver’s body decomposed faster than usual because of the heat. He said there was not a lot of tissue on the body.

Posey said Wyscaver died of blunt force trauma to the head and he classified it as a “homicide.”

Doug Woodruff, assistant public defender and Simpson’s court-appointed attorney, argued that Posey’s classifi-cation for homicide could also include homicide by self-defense.

GBI special agent Lanny Cox, who worked the crime scene, described pictures in evidence, as well as the alleged weapons, which included a 9-inch 2x4 board, 24-inch 2x4 board, computer monitor and computer tower.

Cox said Simpson apparently hit Wyscaver first with this fists, then with the boards, and finally with the com-puter monitor and tower as Wyscaver lay on the ground.

Cox said there was blood on the walls and cabinets. He said blood splatters would not occur if a weapon were used only once to strike a person, but would occur after multiple strikes.

Cox said authorities found beer cans that had both Wyscaver and Simpson’s fingerprints.

The trial is being held in the courthouse annex with Judge Ralph Van Pelt presiding.