Lawyers started Monday their trial defense in the case of 18-year-old Jean Pierre Orlewicz, accused of slaying, beheading and burning a 26-year-old man from River Rouge.

The teenager burst into tears as friends and relatives testified on his behalf, describing him as a very nice person.

Orlewicz is charged with first-degree murder after stabbing to death and decapitating Daniel Sorensen on November 7.

Orlewicz’s friend Alexander Letkemann, also 18, recently admitted he had attended Orlewicz crime, being guilty of second-degree murder. Letkemann faces 20 to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty.

Letkemann told the jury that Orlewicz slit Sorensen’s throat from behind, after meeting him in his grandfather’s garage in Canton. Letkemann declared he assisted the murder bearing a knife as Orlewicz continued stabbing Sorensen multiple times. Orlewicz’s partner in crime said the supposed killer’s reason for the crime was that Sorensen owed him around $400 and had his gun. He said the two of them cleaned the scene of the murder, and then Orlewicz beheaded Sorensen’s dead body and burned his fingertips with a blowtorch. Letkemann also confessed that they had burned the body. Orlewicz threw the head in the Rouge River in Hines Park, the next day.

In the defense trial today, Janice Neal, who works with the Orlewicz family testified on the behalf of Orlewicz, describing him as “a warm and caring person.” She said she had known the teenager since he was a child.

Orlewicz’s father, William Orlewicz, also said he could not imagine his compassionate and always peaceful son could commit such a horrible crime. He also said he did not know that his son used drugs, consumed alcohol and owned a gun.

Orlewicz attorneys insist that the crime had been committed in self-defense, and then the teenager panicked and tried to get rid of the evidence.

However, other witnesses declared that Orlewicz told them he wanted to kill Sorensen because he owed him money. They said the teenager had threatened to stab and decapitate the man, then set him on fire.