Jurors in the Derrick James Jackson double homicide trial watched video footage Tuesday of deputies discovering the bodies of Stanley Grotberg and Tricia DeMotts inside their Bigfork home in October 2022.  

Jackson, 39, is charged with two counts of deliberate homicide in Flathead County District Court in connection with the deaths of 62-year-old DeMotts — Jackson’s mother — and her partner, 65-year-old Grotberg. He also faces charges of tampering with evidence and criminal possession of dangerous drugs.  

Jackson pleaded not guilty in February 2023. Judge Amy Eddy is presiding over the case. 

Flathead County Sheriff’s Office deputies discovered the slain couple in their Esteban Lane home while performing a welfare check on Oct. 28, 2022. Jackson, who was arrested earlier in the day for allegedly trespassing on neighbors’ properties and attempting to break into homes, was found with Grotberg’s mobile phone and prescription pill bottle on him.  

Aaron Westphal, then a corporal with the Sheriff’s Office, testified that he began searching for Grotberg after booking Jackson into the county jail. At that point, Westphal said he believed he was handling a petty theft case and hoped to return Grotberg’s medication and cellphone.  

After unsuccessfully looking for Grotberg at the Kalispell gas station where he worked, Westphal headed back to the 65-year-old's Bigfork home. He had been there earlier in the day, trying to track down Jackson, who lived on Esteban Lane with DeMotts and Grotberg. During that earlier visit, Westphal knocked several times with no results. Though he could hear a television on, the daylight prevented him from getting a good look inside the home through the windows.  

Returning at night, Westphal found the home’s interior lit up. Peering inside, he saw blood in the kitchen and called for backup.  

Bright white flashlight beams cut through the dark on the deputies’ body camera footage as Westphal and Deputy John VanGundy rounded the home looking for a way inside. Eventually, they found a second door, this one unlocked.  

The camera footage captured the two announcing themselves as they walked in, weapons drawn. As they moved around the home, VanGundy opened a door to a bedroom. A body was on the floor.  

“I think he’s 58,” VanGundy said, using the office’s radio code for a dead person, as his flashlight remained on the body. Then he flicked the beam up, illuminating the rest of the room.   

“Oh,” he can be heard saying. “There’s more than one.” 

DEPUTY COUNTY Attorney Amy Kenison, who is prosecuting the case, told jurors during opening statements on Monday that they could link Jackson to the gun used to kill Grotberg and Demotts, and that the blood found on Jackson’s clothes belonged to Grotberg. Experts, she said, would show that those clothes contained gunshot residue.  

Jurors, who also saw body camera footage of Jackson’s Oct. 28, 2022 arrest, were shown the .40-caliber Smith and Wesson pistol found in the tall grass not far from where Westphal confronted him. Westphal testified that Jackson, who was clutching a power drill in his left hand at the time, looked like he had pulled an object from his waist with his other hand and tossed it aside.  

Suspecting Jackson of being armed from the start — a body search had yielded a .40-caliber magazine — Westphal recalled doubling-back after loading Jackson into his patrol vehicle. The black handgun was just a few feet from where Jackson dropped the power drill, according to Westphal.  

Jackson could not provide a consistent answer for where he got the gun or the power drill, Westphal recalled.  

But he did try to explain the blood on his hands, according to Westphal. Jackson allegedly said he had been punching trees.  

DEFENSE ATTORNEYS Thomas Schoenleben and Levi Roadman sought throughout Tuesday to undermine the conclusions drawn by investigators and witnesses to Jackson’s behavior during the time of the murders. Jurors earlier in the day heard from Esteban Lane resident Whitney Robinson, who testified that Jackson had attempted to break into her house while she was home alone on Oct. 28, 2022.  

Jackson, who had been told just days before to stay away from their home, had knocked on the door, she said. She opened it briefly, listened to him mutter and then shut and locked the door, Robinson recalled. He was asking for somebody, she said.  

Schoenleben asked whether he was holding a gun. No, she replied.  

During their brief interaction, had he been polite? Schoenleben asked.  

“I guess so,” Robinson said.  

Did she know his speech patterns, whether he usually mumbled or talked in that cadence? he asked. She replied that she couldn’t say for sure.  

Robinson also testified that she called 911 a second time later in the day when she spotted Jackson allegedly trying to force his way into a neighbor’s home. Schoenleben asked whether Jackson had first knocked.  

“He did not try to knock,” Robinson replied.  

“But you don’t know for sure?” Schoenleben asked.  

“He was trying to open the door,” Robinson answered. 

Schoenleben asked if that was an assumption.  

“I was watching it, but I guess so,” She replied.     

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or [email protected].