Before the jury gets the case, Jacqueline Dawn "Jackie" Montgomery is expected to testify in her own defense Friday during her murder trial in Crawford County Common Pleas Court.

Montgomery, 44, Crestline, faces three murder charges in connection with the 2021 beating death of Michael "Mikey" Benedict. Before dismissing jurors after Thursday's testimony and an opening from the defense, Judge Sean Leuthold of Common Pleas Court outlined his plan for Friday.

Testimony will begin promptly at 8:30 a.m. Friday with Montgomery in the witness stand, Leuthold said. "No nonsense, no coming at 9:05. I'm not entertaining any motions from anybody; no problems from these guys. We're going to start right at 8:30."

More:Death of Mikey Benedict: Jury selection in trial of Jackie Montgomery starts Monday

The judge said he expects Montgomery to be on the stand for about two hours. After a break, he hopes to start closing arguments around 11:30 a.m. and have the case in the jury's hands by around 2:30 p.m.

Deliberations may carry over into Monday — that will be up to the jury, he said. Snow in the forecast for Friday also may be a consideration; "I'm not crazy about keeping a jury late in a snowstorm," Leuthold said.

Thursday's testimony began with Leuthold reading a stipulation to jurors about the potential sentence witness Cameron Davis might have faced had he not agreed to testify.

Montgomery; her husband, Timothy Montgomery; and Davis, 32, their next-door neighbor, all faced identical murder charges in the case — aggravated murder, purposeful murder and violent felony murder, all unclassified felonies. In response to a question during cross-examination Wednesday, Davis began to say "I was facing 25 years," before being cut off by Leuthold, who explained juries are not to be informed of potential sentences during a trial.

The stipulation agreed to by attorneys on both sides instructed jurors to disregard Davis' answer and stated Davis was facing a "significantly greater sentence than the one in the agreement."

More:Potential jurors in Jackie Montgomery trial informed of earlier verdict

After that, defense attorney James Mayer III of Mansfield continued his cross-examination of Davis, walking him through the details of what happened on the night of Oct. 9, 2021, and the early morning hours of the following day, when the beating took place.

The next witness to testify was Officer Jeff Travaglianti of the Elyria Police Department, who was a Crestline police officer at the time of the incident,

Benedict, a 40-year-old Crawford County native, was found unconscious by Crestline police investigating a 911 report of a beating shortly after 2:20 a.m. Oct. 10, 2021. The beating followed an incident at Just Jokin' Bar and Grill. He died on Nov. 4, 2021.

ggoble@gannett.com

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This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Jackie Montgomery expected to testify in her murder trial Friday