MONROE — Julia Hunter’s mother was killed and her son is accused of doing it. Thursday, she tearfully took the witness stand.

“Jamez didn’t have a reason to kill my mother,” Julia Ann Hunter testified in Jamez Dorjan Hunter’s trial. “Jamez is not a violent person. ... Jamez and Mommy were very close. ... They got along good.”

Jamez Hunter, 27, formerly of 124 W. Union St., Marshville, is charged with first-degree murder in the May 6, 2007, death of Rosia Lee Hunter. The grandmother was found beaten and stabbed by another one of her grandchildren, a high-school sophomore, in her home in Marshville the next morning.

Jamez Hunter testified he was “blacked out” on a mixture of ecstasy and crack cocaine, at his grandmother’s house, when his grandmother was killed and does not remember what happened.

As Julia Hunter was taking the stand, her son quietly wept, then kept his eyes down while his mother testified. As she walked down from the witness stand, he put his face in his hands.

Others who knew Jamez Hunter testified for the defense and characterized Hunter as a non-violent person who was typically slow to anger.

Erica Belk knew the Hunter family and worked at Food Lion.

“He would always help (his grandmother) put stuff in the buggy,” she testified. “They always joked and picked and played. ... That was everyone in the house.”

Those who testified said they had a difficult time believing that Jamez Hunter was charged with murder when they first heard about it.

Court went into recess shortly after 11 a.m. because a psychologist witness was expecting a baby Thursday in Durham and needed to be with his wife. Judge David Lee allowed a recess in order to be “fair to everyone,” he said. “I regret that we have to do that, but there are certain things that are beyond our control. And that is one of them.”

Court will reconvene at 9 a.m. Friday with the last witness followed by closing arguments. The case could be turned over to the jury by late morning.