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GREENSBORO - April Caldwell's mother, Anna, testified in court this morning about finding her daughter stabbed to death on Christmas two years ago.

"I ran over to her, picked her hand up," Anna Caldwell said. "I told her to squeeze my hand. She didn't move."

Anna Caldwell was the second witness to testify after opening arguments this morning in Juan Carlos Olivo Ramirez's murder trial. Ramirez, 28, is accused of killing April Caldwell, 17, his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his now 3-year-old son, David.

Prosecutor Kelly Thompson outlined a case of domestic violence in her opening argument Tuesday in Guilford County Superior Court. She described Ramirez as controlling.

"If he wasn't going to control April Caldwell in life," she said, "then he was certainly going to control her in death."

Public defender Wayne Baucino admitted that his client committed murder. But he argued that it wasn't premeditated and therefore jurors should find Ramirez guilty of no more than second-degree murder.

He described that Christmas as a time of hope for Ramirez, who believed he would be getting back together with April Caldwell and their son. But when he arrived at the apartment where she was staying, April Caldwell told Ramirez that their relationship was over, Baucino said. She also told Ramirez she would call the police and say he had raped her when she was 14, Baucino said.

He said Ramirez, who believed Caldwell was involved with the two men at the apartment, became so enraged by all of what had happened that "he exploded."

Ramirez, of 3008 Peebles Drive in Greensboro, faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.

Read more on Tuesday's testimony in Wednesday's News & Record.

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at jennifer.fernandez@news-record.com or 373-7064.