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ABINGDON -- William Morva's defense offered its first clues Thursday as to how it plans to defend him against charges that he killed two men in a case where the prosecution claims to have a litany of strong evidence.

Tom Blaylock, one of the 26-year-old's three defense attorneys, didn't deny that Morva killed Montgomery Regional Hospital security guard Derrick McFarland and Montgomery County Sheriff's Cpl. Eric Sutphin. He told jurors that Morva's case is not one of who or how, but why.

"This is a case of why -- why did this happen," he told the jury of five men and nine women --including two alternates -- who were seated first thing Thursday morning. "And during the course of this trial, we will attempt to answer this question."

Blaylock told jurors in his opening statement that they will hear about Morva's past, from his birth to the time he spent in jail not long before his escape. They will hear about his health problems, which include severe sinus infections and irritable bowel syndrome, he said, and about the effect his father's terminal cancer had on the family.

After his 2005 arrest on attempted robbery charges, Morva waited in jail for nine months without a bond hearing -- something that usually happens within days -- and began to feel like he had been abandoned by his attorney, his family and his friends, Blaylock said. Morva was convinced he was going to die in jail, he said.

"As this seed of isolation grew and grew and grew," Blaylock told jurors as Morva kept his eyes toward the floor, "Mr. Morva's abandonment turned into desperation and hopelessness."

Morva is accused of knocking out Deputy Russell Quesenberry who escorted him to Montgomery Regional Hospital early the morning of Aug. 20, 2006, three days before a scheduled jury trial on the charges he faced. Commonwealth's Attorney Brad Finch said evidence will show that Morva took the deputy's loaded pistol and used it to fatally shoot McFarland and Sutphin.

When Morva was found lying in a thicket near the Huckleberry Trail after a manhunt that took nearly 37 hours, Quesenberry's gun was under his shoulder, Finch said. His DNA was on the handle, and forensic analysis has shown that shell casings found near the bodies of McFarland and Sutphin came from that gun.

Morva faces seven felony charges, including three counts of capital murder -- one in each death and a third because he is accused of killing more than one person in less than three years.

Jurors on Thursday heard from six witnesses in the case, who described how Morva was taken to the hospital and how they say he escaped and shot the unarmed McFarland in the face.

Perhaps the most powerful testimony came from Quesenberry and Jennifer Preston, who was a patient at Montgomery Regional that morning and said she saw Morva shoot McFarland.

It was revealed for the first time Thursday that Sutphin was the first person to comfort Quesenberry after he was attacked.

The night of Aug. 19, 2006, Morva claimed he was hurt after falling in his cell at the Montgomery Regional Jail.

Because he had injured his right arm and left ankle, he wasn't shackled, and only his left hand was cuffed to a waist chain as he was taken to the hospital.

After he was treated there, Quesenberry testified, Morva asked to use the bathroom.

After allowing Morva to go into the bathroom and hearing two consecutive flushes, Quesenberry said, he opened the door. He saw Morva standing there without his orange jumpsuit pants.

The next thing he remembers, Quesenberry said, was waking up on a gurney with a broken nose, a broken facial bone and an injured hand.

A physician's assistant and two nurses testified they saw Quesenberry stagger out of the bathroom with a metal toilet paper dispenser hanging from his neck.

Quesenberry said he realized his gun and prisoner were gone. He tried to sit up, he said, but felt a hand on his chest. It was Sutphin, he said.

"He just told me everything would be OK," he said, his voice cracking.

Preston, who had been a patient at Montgomery Regional because she was hurt in a car crash the night of Aug. 19, 2006, said she was on her way out when she saw Morva standing "like a statue" and pointing a gun at McFarland's face. Then he fired, she said.

Physician's assistant Johnathan Chisum testified that he heard a loud pop and saw Morva, whom he had just treated, run through the hallway, shoot through a set of glass doors and run outside.

He said he saw McFarland lying face down in the hallway, his head surrounded by a pool of blood. Chisum and three other hospital employees testified that they attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and rushed McFarland to a trauma room. They tried hard to save him, they said, but he died in the emergency room.