Justin Hasty's family describes finding blood inside their son's ...

MOBILE, Alabama -- Through tears today, Justin Hasty's mother described the moment when she realized after walking through her son's house that something horrible had happened in his home on Caroline Avenue.

Sandra "Sandy" Hasty went to the home after Justin Hasty's father, Dwight Hasty, told her he hadn't shown up for work at his construction business the morning of Monday, Oct. 29, 2012.

When she arrived one of Justin Hasty's friends, Jay Graham, was already at the house, she testified today. Lights were on inside the house, but the front and back doors were locked and no one answered their knocks. Justin Hasty's car was in the driveway.

Fearing her son had blacked out and fallen, Sandy Hasty called the real estate company renting the home to her son and had someone come to unlock the front door. She said several months before his death, Justin Hasty had gone to the hospital after suffering from a series of black outs.

She walked through the house with Graham trailing behind her.

"It didn't look like anything happened that I should be concerned about," Sandy Hasty said.

When she made it through the shotgun-style apartment into the kitchen and flipped off the light, she turned to Graham.

"We need to get out of here," Sandy Hasty, her voice cracking, quoted Graham as saying. "Something bad has happened here."

It was then that she noticed blood on the walls.

"And I said, 'what happened to him?'" she said through tears while testifying in Mobile County Presiding Circuit Judge Charles Graddick's courtroom today. "'Where's my baby?'"

Graham called Dwight Hasty, who testified that he went to the house shortly after the call.

"Everything was like he kept it," Dwight Hasty said. "It was perfect, expect for that [blood on the ceiling] and the rug by his bed."

Photos of the crime scene show a rug bunched up in the middle of Justin Hasty's room. The rug and the blood spattered in the house are the only signs of struggle.

Dwight Hasty described his son as a bit of a "health nut," while Sandy Hasty said her son had become meticulous about his things after his stint in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Justin Hasty had been dishonorably discharged from the Marines, but he appealed that decision. It was reversed in May 2012, according to a letter found among Justin Hasty's things after his death.

Sandy Hasty said she did not know Brandon Estle and Justin Hasty to be friends, although she admitted that she made a conscious effort to keep from being an "overbearing" mom and did not know all the friends Justin Hasty kept around.

Estle is on trial for the murder of Justin Hasty, whose body was found in a storage container on property owned by Estle's parents the day after he was reported missing.

Sandy Hasty said she was the one who gave Justin Hasty the aluminum baseball bat which prosecutors believe was used to bludgeon the 25-year-old to death. She testified that she has a similar one which she keeps in her bedroom in case she needs protection when she's alone in her home.

The bat was one of a number of items which Justin Hasty's family later learned were missing from his home.

Also missing was his wallet, two backpacks, his gun and his cell phone.

District Attorney Ashley Rich said the items were taken by Estle after the attack. Justin Hasty's cell phone was found on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, by a Mobile Airport Authority worker while he was cleaning a grassy median on Airport Boulevard.

While reviewing images of some of the lost items, Dwight Hasty was asked to identify a black Camelback backpack which was pictured on top of Justin Hasty's bed.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Jeff Deen pointed to a small plastic bag near the pack.

Dwight Hasty could not identify the baggy or its contents, which Deen implied was cocaine.

Deen and Rich agree that Justin Hasty was killed by Estle, but they differ on the motives behind the gruesome attack.

Testimony in the case is set to resume Wednesday morning.

Theresa Seiger is on Facebook.

Source: http://blog.al.com/live/2013/06/justin_hastys_family_describes.html

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