Court ended early Wednesday in the Everson murder trial after only two witnesses had taken the stand. A third witness, Joel Beckrich, was scheduled to appear but "circumstances arose" that prevented him from being there.

Beckrich is expected to be a key witness for both the prosecution and the defense in the case of the State of Minnesota vs. Grant Everson.

Beckrich pleaded guilty to charges of first- and second-degree murder last month for his role in the death of Nancy Everson. Nancy was found shot to death in the Eversons’ Chaska residence on Jan. 15.

Grant Everson, Nancy's son, faces charges of first-degree premeditated murder in the fatal shooting of his mother and second-degree attempted murder of his father Tom. He also faces charges of aiding and abetting murder in the first and second degree related to Nancy’s death. Everson is alleged to have been at the Everson residence with his friend Beckrich at the time of the shooting.

Testimony began Wednesday morning with the defense's cross examination of Christopher Fuhrman. Fuhrman, who was friends with both Everson and Beckrich, testified the day before that he was aware of the plan to murder Tom and Nancy, but did nothing to stop it.

Wednesday, Fuhrman told the court that Everson wasn't the only one with a desire to kill his parents. He testified that Beckrich had also talked about killing his parents. Fuhrman said that he thought Beckrich "was kidding around" at the time.

Police allege that one of the motives for the murder was a plan to take the insurance proceeds Everson would collect after his parents’ deaths to open a coffee shop where they could legally sell marijuana in Amsterdam.

Fuhrman testified that Everson never confirmed that he would go to Amsterdam with Fuhrman and Beckrich.

"Not for sure, no," Fuhrman told the court.

Also testifying Wednesday was Chaska Police Detective Norm Prusinski. Prusinski went to Beckrich and Fuhrman's Burnsville townhouse following Nancy's murder to interview them about Everson's whereabouts the previous day. He was also present at the townhouse when Beckrich, Fuhrman and their friend Michael Gulden began divulging details of the murder plan.

Prusinski testified that he later returned to the townhouse and collected a number of pieces of evidence, including “violent” video games, marijuana magazines that discussed how to open a cannabis cafe and a passport application filled out by Beckrich with an anticipated exit date of Jan. 24, 2006.

Prusinski was questioned by the defense as to several statements collected from Beckrich by the police. Among those statements public defender Christine Funk read, and Prusinski testified as being accurate, Beckrich told police that "when Grant's mom was moving (in the bedroom), it hit them that they shouldn't be there."

"We wanted to hightail it out of there," his statement read.

"We both pretty much decided ‘… we're not doing this,'" another statement read.

Prusinski further testified to comments made by Beckrich to his mother and his brother via cell phone calls following his arrest.

"It's difficult to explain," he told his mother. "It never should have happened.

"Technically it wasn't an accident but I didn't mean to pull the trigger.

"It was instinctual but I'm not going to be playing self defense.

"I fired a warning shot," he told his brother. "She lunged at me and I shot her in the head."

Later in the police car on the way to show officers where he had stashed the murder weapon, Beckrich said to police, "The entire night was poor judgment. I wouldn't even say poor. Just horrid."

The defense will try to use Beckrich's testimony to show that the murder plan was not carried out and that Beckrich reacted alone to Nancy's presence in the hallway following the murder attempt.

The prosecution will try to show that Beckrich helped Everson plot and at least partially carry out a plan to kill Everson's parents.

Tuesday, Judge Kevin Eide commented that he was surprised at the pace the trial was moving. Today, he told jurors that at this time, it looked like the case could go to them for a decision as soon as next Wednesday. Court will resume Monday morning at 9 a.m.