UPDATED: Brenda Kerrigan Recalls the Night of Her Husband's Death

Updated at 1:09 p.m. and 3:49 p.m.

The third day of the Mark Kerrigan trial ended midway through Brenda Kerrigan's emotional testimony about the events that occurred the night her husband Daniel Kerrigan died following an altercation with her son, Mark Kerrigan.

Brenda Kerrigan testified that Mark Kerrigan had been trying to use the house phone multiple times and that her husband had become annoyed with his son and told him to not to use it and to go downstairs in the basement.

The couple went to bed at about 11:15 p.m. Jan. 23, 2010, but in the early morning hours of Jan. 24 they heard Mark Kerrigan making noise downstairs. After Daniel Kerrigan put on a pair of jeans and Brenda Kerrigan her bathrobe, they went downstairs to see what their son was doing, she recalled.

Brenda Kerrigan, who is legally blind and can only see things from close up, testified that she saw Daniel Kerrigan put his hands on the shoulders of Mark Kerrigan, who was one step down on the stairs leading to the basement, and Mark Kerrigan said, "What are you gonna do - push me down the stairs?" 

Moments later, the father and son were locked in "a bear hug"-type struggle and that "(Daniel Kerrigan) fell down like a feather coming right out of the sky," Brenda Kerrigan said, as she teared up and became emotionally distraught during her testimony.

Meanwhile, Mark Kerrigan could be seen wiping tears from his eyes during his mother's testimony.

Judge S. Jane Haggerty decided to end the trial session for the day about 10 minutes before the scheduled 1 p.m. end time. Day four of the trial is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Thursday.

Earlier into Wednesday's court proceedings, the prosecution rested after hearing testimony from the Dr. Henry Nields, the chief medical examiner of Massachusetts who conducted the autopsy on Daniel Kerrigan.

The defense started to make its case by interviewing two witnesses: John Leccese, a private investigator from Stoneham, and William Schultz, Daniel Kerrigan's brother-in-law from North Reading.

Leccese, who claims to have testified hundreds of times in court and is a former Stoneham Police Department patrolman, explained how he went to Daniel and Brenda Kerrigan's home and took photographs of the picture frame hooks on the wall to show how the hooks were bent in an upward position to try and keep photos from falling off the wall. He added that the way the hooks were bent precluded the framed photos from being able to lay flat against the wall.

The defense submitted a video into evidence showing Leccese hitting what he called  a "very shaky" wall in the kitchen and pictures falling to the floor with relative ease.

"I've built several houses in my day and the wall... you could shake it," Leccese said.

Police officers called by the prosecution testified previously that photos were found crooked on the wall and had been knocked off during what the prosecution claims was a lengthy struggle between Mark and Daniel Kerrigan.

Meanwhile, Schultz recalled a November 2009 instance where Daniel Kerrigan "looked white, almost grayish in color" after using a chainsaw for 20-30 minutes to trim limbs off a large fallen tree on Schultz's property following a storm.

Schultz also testified that he saw Daniel Kerrigan on Christmas Day that same year and how he again looked tired and grayish in complexion. 

Posted 11:53 a.m.

The cause of death of the father of Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was heart failure following a struggle with his son, Mark Kerrigan, according to testimony provided by the chief medical examiner on Wednesday in Woburn Superior Court.

Dr. Henry Nields testified that Daniel Kerrigan, the father of Nancy and Mark Kerrigan, died as a result of "cardiac dysrhythmia following a physical altercation" with his son at the family home in Stoneham on Jan. 24, 2010.

"The physical altercation played a significant role in the death (of Daniel Kerrigan)," Nields said. He later added during the defense's cross-examination that stress, anger and upset also played a role in Daniel Kerrigan's death.

Nields said that Daniel Kerrigan suffered seven broken ribs (three on the left side, four on the right) likely from CPR performed after the altercation, had an abrasion on his chin and abrasions on both knees. During the defense's cross-examination, Brenda Kerrigan, Daniel Kerrigan's wife, could be seen tearing up and being consoled by her daughter Nancy Kerrigan.

Mark Kerrigan, of Stoneham, is accused of causing the death of his 70-year-old father and on trial for involuntary manslaughter and assault and battery on a person over the age of 60.

Prosecutors claim that Mark Kerrigan is responsible for his father's death after he allegedly injured the elder Kerrigan by grabbing his throat with such force that he damaged the left side of his larynx.

While some measurements were taken, including the weight of Daniel Kerrigan's heart which was enlarged and weighed 590 grams and fell outside the range of a normal heart weight of 350-450 grams, Nields said that larynx fracture was not measured but didn't believe it was more than a centimeter.

On Tuesday, Dr. Khether Raby, who treated Daniel Kerrigan for several years and has a Stoneham-based practice and works in connection with Winchester Hospital, reviewed the autopsy report and believes Daniel Kerrigan suffered a "demand event" during the altercation with his son.

The cardiologist explained that a demand event is when the heart needs to pump blood at a much higher rate than normal, such as when you help a friend to move a refridgerator up a flight of stairs.

In this case, the demand event would be the larynx injury suffered by Daniel Kerrigan, whose heartbeat increased while at the same time experienced a spike in blood pressure. Daniel Kerrigan's significantly blocked arteries were unable to recover and led to his deadly heart attack, according to Raby's testimony.