Jury selection and opening statements by attorneys were completed Wednesday.

The first round of state’s witnesses delivered testimony Thursday to establish the sequence of events leading up to and following the discovery of Kelley’s vehicle burning on a gravel road in northeast Minot in the early morning of June 3, 2021.

BNSF employee Matthew Phillips testified he and a coworker were leaving Gavin Yard at the end of their shifts shortly after midnight on June 3 when they observed a fire burning on a gravel road. Phillips said he initially thought it was a hay bale, but he attempted to approach the blaze after realizing it was a vehicle.

A former volunteer firefighter, Phillips said he was worried someone could have been slumped on the steering wheel as the vehicle’s horn was active. Phillips called 911 to report the fire and recorded a video on his phone to preserve details of the scene for first responders.

Charles Crane/MDN A crime scene photo introduced as evidence at the trial of Kamauri Kennedy on Thursday shows the burnt vehicle where the body of Dominique Kelley was discovered on June 3, 2021.

Minot Police patrol officer Amanda Somerville testified to what she observed after being dispatched to the scene, saying she recognized the silver Chevrolet Impala and its plate number from a traffic stop a few hours previously. Somerville and fellow patrol officer Dana Battinger described the traffic stop as part of a Ward County Narcotics Task Force investigation. Battinger said he initiated the traffic stop due to Kelley failing to use a turn signal, and his body camera footage of the stop was briefly played for the jury. Somerville indicated the traffic stop resulted in a search of the vehicle and Kelley receiving a citation for marijuana possession.

Somerville said the vehicle was engulfed in flames, and everything inside was burnt to ash. She said skeletal remains were observed in the passenger side of the back seat of the vehicle.

Crime scene photographs taken by Somerville were introduced as evidence, which showed the state of the damage to the vehicle’s interior and body. Somerville testified a puncture wound was visible on the body’s skull and a lighter was located about 10 feet from the vehicle on the gravel road.

Over the next 24 hours, Somerville testified, she was dispatched to the scenes of three additional fires, which were lit within 30 minutes of each other. The first was at a residence in Minot, followed by a second vehicle fire and a grass fire. Somerville said the subsequent fires seemed to be a “distraction tactic” to limit the resources of responders, as they were located close in proximity to each other.

Former Minot police officer Kenton Kossan, who was with the Crime Scene Response Unit at the time of the initial fire incident, testified to the evidence collected at the scene, which included the alleged victim’s body along with photographs, drone video and field molds of tire tracks near the burnt vehicle. Kossan said the tire tracks indicated a larger vehicle had been located in the grassy shoulder/ditch north of the site and had driven away from the scene through a nearby field after it failed to mount and leave via the gravel road.

Kossan was later called to investigate the second vehicle fire, which was determined to be a 2017 GMC Yukon. Kossan said he took impressions of the Yukon’s tires, but he was not trained or credentialed to identify if they matched the impressions collected near the Impala.

When pressed by Kennedy’s attorney William Skees regarding how the tire tracks evidence could be used to identify the vehicle that could have left them, Kossan said the evidence could only aid in identifying the type of vehicle but not the exact vehicle.

In response to Deputy State’s Attorney Tiffany Sorgen’s inquiry about security videos from nearby businesses, Kossan said there was footage that showed a large sports utility vehicle leaving the scene. Skees objected to the testimony as the video footage hadn’t been introduced as evidence yet, which was sustained by District Judge Gary Lee.

The proceedings are expected to continue until Friday, Sept. 27.