Opening statements began Wednesday in Superior Court in the trial of Keith Steward, who is accused of beating and killing his girlfriend by cutting her throat.

Steward allegedly beat his girlfriend, Kathleen Tucker Ivy, over the head with a flower vase and then slashed her throat with a piece from it.

The incident took place somewhere between Nov. 17 and 18, 2008, in a boarding house located at 4238 Bankhead Highway in Lithia Springs.

Ivy’s body was found Nov. 18 when Steward flagged down Deputy Andy Cook of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office as he was passing by on the highway and reported the death.

District Attorney David McDade described how Cook, on patrol in Lithia Springs, was driving down Bankhead Highway when he saw Steward on the side of the road trying to wave him down. MacDade said Steward told Cook that he thought he’d killed his girlfriend. Cook secured Stewart, who continued to tell the deputy that he had got in an argument with Ivy, struck her with a vase and stabbed her in the throat with a remnant. Much of the confession was recorded on video in the deputy’s vehicle, McDade said.

Steward told Cook that Ivy’s body was upstairs in bed in the house, a large dwelling subdivided into small apartments. Ivy lived upstairs in what McDade described as a studio apartment. Her body was found in bed underneath lots of bed covers with a huge, gaping hole in her throat, he said.

McDade painted a portrait of a jealous man who was upset by Ivy’s flirtation with a neighbor. The couple, along with other neighbors, had been drinking beer that evening and bickering when they ended up at residence of Dale Giddens, the neighbor Steward worried Ivy was flirting with. Ivy was drunk and they continued bickering, according to McDade.

“She kept nagging, and he was still upset that she had been flirting with another man,” McDade said. “He was mad at her, and she was mad at him. She was very drunk. We know that from her autopsy.”

McDade said Ivy told Steward he needed to be gone, he didn’t live there and he didn’t pay rent there. She opened the door in a gesture for him to leave, he grabbed her in a choke hold, McDade said, and they ended up on the bed. He continued to choke her and she got her hand on the vase. He caught her hand as she swung, took the vase and struck her in the face with it. When it broke, he took a piece of glass and stabbed her in the throat.

Defense Attorney Monica Myles spoke of Steward’s cooperation with law officials, how he didn’t try to hide or escape, and how he voluntarily talked with Cook and Lt. Bruce Ferguson, who heads the Major Crime Unit.

“He didn’t try to do anything to manipulate the situation, and he cooperated with Deputy Cook,” she said. “He answered every question put to him and told Lt. Ferguson everything he wanted to know.”

Steward didn’t set out to kill Ivy, Myles said. Instead, he wanted to be with her.

Myles told of the Chicago native meeting Ivy in Columbus, Ga., at the House of Mercy, a homeless shelter where Steward worked and lived and where Ivy was a resident. They eventually moved out of the shelter, and when Ivy moved back to Douglas County, Steward followed her.

“She begged her family for the money to get a bus ticket to get him to Douglas County,” Myles said, adding that the family gave Ivy the money.

She described the relationship as volatile.

“She pushes his buttons and he pushes her buttons,” Myles said, and told her version of the events that occurred Nov. 17 and 18.

Steward, with no drivers license or car, had walked from Lithia Springs to Douglasville to see his probation officer. He was on probation for driving with a suspended license. On the way back home, he stopped and bought beer. The couple drank at night after working at day, Myles continued. Ivy worked at The Learning Center and Steward had most recently worked at the Ritz Carlton in Alpharetta before the incident.

During the evening of Nov. 17, Steward went over to a neighbor’s home to find out why an ambulance had been there earlier. Once there, Ivy came over, and they were all drinking.

“She flirts with Giddens. They go to Giddens’ (residence), she continues flirting,” Myles said. “She writes rambling notes in her drunkenness and puts pictures (cut from a Playboy magazine they had) and put them on the bed. She continues provoking him. She grabs the vase and he just lost it.

“He did kill her, but it doesn’t rise to the level of murder,” Myles continued.

According to McDade, there was a history of domestic violence at the residence. Steward was charged in April 2008 with battery for beating Ivy. On Oct. 7, 2008, deputies sent to the home found her bloody, her false teeth knocked from her mouth, and beaten.

Steward was released on bond, but as a condition of his release, he was to have no contact with Ivy, McDade said.