UPDATE: A verdict in this trial has been reached. The story from the May 20 Jackson Hole Daily can be found here.

Attorneys said in opening statements Tuesday that jurors will have to decide whether a Teton Village man acted reasonably when he killed a grizzly bear in September.

Stephen Westmoreland, 41, pleaded not guilty in October to a misdemeanor charge of illegally taking a grizzly bear. Teton County Attorney Steve Weichman and Westmoreland’s defense attorney, David DeFazio, selected a jury of six people in about 90 minutes Tuesday morning for the three-day trial on the count in 9th Circuit Court.

The fact that Westmoreland killed a grizzly is not in dispute, DeFazio said in opening arguments. Testimony would show that Westmoreland feared for his life and acted in self-defense, he said.

“It’s one of the most basic human rights,” DeFazio said of self-defense.

Weichman told jurors evidence in the case would go beyond whether Westmoreland killed the bear and DeFazio would attempt to persuade them that the killing was justified.

“That’s why you’re here – is to determine, after all that evidence, if there was some reason for that killing,” he said.

Weichman isn’t required to prove that Westmoreland intended to kill the bear, only that he took it without a license, he said.

“Take means kill,” Weichman said.

DeFazio said “take” is the key legal word and that if his defense team took the word at face value there wouldn’t be much to refute. But Westmoreland is entitled to a claim of self-defense, which justifies the taking, he said.

Westmoreland will testify that he ran back to camp looking over his shoulder because he was scared there might be a second bear, DeFazio said. His hunting partners will say Westmoreland “sat disturbed, beside himself for hours” after the shooting, he said.

Experts will analyze the various facts of the case, including that the bear had its ears up as it approached Westmoreland at a distance of 40 yards, it was a subadult female, it had been habituated to humans and it was radio-collared, DeFazio said. But they have no idea what Westmoreland was facing at the time of the shooting, he said.

“In a situation where human life is at risk, and there is any question, who or what do you set aside?” DeFazio said. “Human or animal life?”

Witnesses will testify that it takes a grizzly two to three seconds to cover a distance of 40 yards, he said. Westmoreland didn’t see the bear when he first entered a 3-acre meadow in the Ditch Creek area and he began taking steps backward when it stood up from a moose carcass, he said.

Westmoreland will testify that the bear dropped to all fours and never took its eyes off him, DeFazio said. Westmoreland was sweating profusely and had a bloody hide on his backpack, he said. The bear never stopped approaching and Westmoreland had his back up against the forest before he fired the first shot, he said.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department officer Bill Long testified later Tuesday that he found the bear’s body on the opposite side of the carcass from where Westmoreland was standing. About five feet separated the bear and the carcass, Long’s report says.

There was no disagreement about Westmoreland’s character.

Weichman said Westmoreland has volunteered more than 1,000 hours with Habitat for Humanity and lives a “quiet, peaceful life.”

“He gives more to this community than he takes,” he said. “Not because he has to, but because that’s who he is.”

Some mean things have been said about Westmoreland, including that “the wrong predator died that day,” Weichman said. DNA tests confirmed in October that the grizzly was No. 615, one of three cubs that gained fame in Grand Teton National Park from 2006 to 2008 as their mother raised them near the roadside.

“These hurtful things drag us all down as a community,” he said. “And you need to understand that the defendant is a good man.”

DeFazio said Westmoreland’s hunting partners would testify that he’s a responsible hunter. He keeps a clean camp with separate tents for cooking and activities. Their party was hunting mule deer and scouted the Ditch Creek area for 10 days, he said.

Westmoreland will testify that he walked through the meadow on four different days and never observed anything other than birds on the moose carcass, DeFazio said.

“If there was bear activity, he would have avoided the area entirely,” he said.

Evidence will show Westmoreland is a cautious hunter who isn’t looking for trophy game. He hunts for meat, DeFazio said.

“He did go back out deer hunting that year, but his heart wasn’t in it and he didn’t take anything,” DeFazio said.

Long testified he found Westmoreland to be honest when he reported the shooting. Westmoreland was not carrying bear spray or a bear flare at the time of the shooting, he said. Regulations in the area do not require hunters to carry either deterrent.

Westmoreland shot the grizzly twice with a .270-caliber rifle, Long said. He also was carrying a .44-caliber pistol and did not fire a warning shot, Long said.

Though Westmoreland did have a black bear license, he believed he shot a grizzly, Long said. There currently is not a license for taking a grizzly bear, he said.

The trial is scheduled to continue this morning.