Joseph Patton took the stand in his own defense on Thursday afternoon; the only witness his defense team presented before resting its case.

However, Patton seemed to do himself no favors as he claimed not to remember much about previous statements he made to law enforcement officers, his address or even knowledge about the use of his cell phone in the days leading up to and after the discovery of his uncle, Alfred “Pete” Patton’s body on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015.

Patton, 36, is charged with first-degree murder for killing his uncle, who was discovered dead on his couch at 60 Nebula Drive, Vicksburg — sprawled on a sofa with almost the entire head of an axe buried in his throat, his left hand touching the small part of the axe head that was protruding from his neck.

Closing arguments and jury instructions will begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday in Circuit Court Judge M. James Chaney Jr.’s 9th Circuit courtroom at the Warren County Courthouse.

Neighbors close to Alfred Patton testified on day one of the trial that Alfred Patton wanted Joseph Patton to leave his home. They said he complained about Patton’s unwillingness to pick up after himself, his coming and going at all hours, and about wanting simply to live alone in his own home. William “Eddie” Thigpen and his girlfriend, Gabrielle Phillips, testified that Alfred Patton asked his nephew Joseph Patton to leave “constantly” but didn’t follow through with making him leave because he was family and had no place else to live.

Joseph Patton, who had been living with his uncle since early August, claimed Alfred Patton was drunk and belligerent and told him to leave on Thursday, Sept. 17, but said that wasn’t an unusual occurrence.

“He kicked me out the house. Sometimes when he was drinking, the best thing to do was to leave,” Joseph Patton testified, claiming he did not return to Alfred Patton’s home after he left on Thursday, Sept. 17.

However, Phillips claims she saw Patton at her neighbor Alfred Patton’s home on Saturday, Sept. 19, and again on Monday, Sept. 21.

On Wednesday, the prosecution presented what seemed to be damning circumstantial evidence against Joseph Patton, including a video recording of him shopping for a purchasing on Wednesday, Sept. 16, the axe that was used to kill Alfred Patton.

When he testified Thursday, Patton claimed his uncle asked him to purchase the axe to use it to cut down a tree in his yard.

The prosecution played audio recordings of several phone calls made from the cell phone police officers confiscated from Joseph Patton when they detained him on Sept. 22 and representatives of Met Life. The caller in those conversations claimed to be Alfred Patton and used a Green Dot Visa card to purchase a $20,000 life insurance policy with a $25,000 additional payout in the event of accidental death in Albert Patton’s name, naming Joseph Patton as sole beneficiary.

However, on cross-examination by District Attorney Ricky Smith, Patton said Alfred Patton often used his cell phone and that the two of them shared the Green Dot credit card.

The purchaser of the life insurance policy, who claimed on the calls to be Alfred Patton, also asked that correspondence about the policy be sent to Joseph Patton’s email address.

When questioned by the prosecution, Patton claimed Alfred Patton also used his email. However, he could not explain how the final call to Met Life made on Friday, Sept. 18, to verify that the life insurance policy was in effect, was made from his cell phone if he had not returned to Alfred Patton’s home since the day before.

Smith played a portion of the recording again, and again asked Joseph Patton if it was him making the call.

“I don’t know who made those calls. I know it was not me,” Joseph Patton said.

Prosecutors also put into evidence a video recording of Joseph Patton buying a bottle of bleach from the Family Dollar on Friday, Sept. 18, using the Green Dot Visa card.

That bottle of bleach — with the time stamped receipt under it — was found on Alfred Patton’s front deck by investigators on the day his body was found. That receipt led them to the video of Joseph Patton purchasing the bleach.

Patton claimed the prosecution did not turn that receipt over to him after discovery and he could not prepare a defense for it. A claim District Attorney Ricky Smith denied.

Patton seemed to avoid and spoke inaudibly around Smith’s questions about how the bleach, purchased on Sept. 18, wound up on Alfred Patton’s deck if Patton had not returned since Sept. 17.

Joseph Patton also claimed that a black notebook found by police in his white Toyota Camry, which contained a shopping list that included “Clorox, garbage bags, Benedryl, blankets and towels,” did not belong to him, but to his uncle instead.

On Wednesday before resting its case, the prosecution called to the witness stand Dr. Brent Davis, a forensic pathologist and deputy chief medical examiner at the Mississippi Forensic Laboratory. Davis performed the autopsy on Alfred Patton.

He determined Patton’s cause of death to be sharp force injuries to his neck and chest, which several two main blood vessels and broke two vertebrae in his back and one in his neck.

“He was in a moderate to advanced state of decomposition. He was not recognizable,” Davis said, testifying Alfred Patton had been dead for at least several days before his body was found.

Davis testimony is contrary to a defense hypothesis Patton had only been dead for a day or two, and that Joseph Patton couldn’t have killed him because he claims to have not returned to the home after being asked to leave on Thursday, Sept. 17.

Alison Conville, a forensic scientist at the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory who specializes in drug analysis, testified Wednesday that the powdery substance found in an envelope at the crime scene with Joseph Patton’s name on it was diphenhydramine, the generic name for the drug found in Benedryl, which was on the list in the black notebook found in Joseph Patton’s vehicle. She said the milky substance found in the bottle of Seagram’s Extra Dry Gin was also diphenhydramine.

Prosecutors on Wednesday also played a recording of a cell phone call made to 911 from a caller claiming to have heard shots fired on Saturday, Sept. 20.

Shane Garrard, deputy director at Vicksburg-Warren E-911, testified the caller claimed to have been driving by 60 Nebula Drive and heard three or four gunshots. The caller on the recording mentioned the specific address of 60 Nebula Drive several times during the call.

However, Garrard said the call was not made from anywhere near that address.

“The call originated from 799 Bridge St.,” Garrard said.

Smith said the number used to call 911 was on a list of telephone numbers called on the cell phone officers confiscated from Joseph Patton.