CLACKAMAS COUNTY Ore. (KPTV) - Opening statements were given Thursday in the trial of a man accused of stabbing a mailman to death last fall in Clackamas County .

State prosecutors painted the picture that Tristan Thomas was the victim in this case, saying he was brutally attacked right in front of his own door after an argument earlier in the day escalated that evening.

But the defense team says the defendant in this case, 52-year-old Chad Westover, was acting in self-defense, claiming Thomas was the one who brought the knife to the fight and swung first.

Some of the last words from 43-year-old Tristan Thomas were him yelling for help.

The state prosecutors played a video taken the night he was stabbed multiple times in the face, neck and shoulders. He died in the hospital while in

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