A Whiteside County jury began hearing testimony Tuesday, Dec. 2, during the trial of a Rock Falls man accused of beating a 61-year-old man to the point that he suffered a brain stem injury.

The six-man, six-woman jury will ultimately decide whether Scott E. Hagerman, 63, caused the brain stem injury suffered by Ronald E. Fistler Jr. on Aug. 6, 2022, outside of the Whiteside County Housing Authority’s Garden Homes in the 400 block of Garden Circle, Rock Falls. Fistler died 2 1/2 weeks later.

Hagerman is charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm to a person 60 or older, punishable by three to seven years in prison, as well as aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and aggravated battery in a public place, each of which carry two to five years in prison.

He also is charged with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor, by refusing to cooperate with a Rock Falls police officer during his arrest processing, according to the charging document.

During opening statements Tuesday afternoon, Whiteside County Assistant State’s Attorney Ryan Simon said he would prove that Hagerman provoked Fistler into a fist fight that led Fistler to suffer a subdural hematoma and a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Simon said statements made by Hagerman after the fight and later to police show he didn’t like Fistler and had provoked him so that he could claim he had acted in self-defense.

But Whiteside County Public Defender James Fagerman argued there are no witnesses who saw the altercation unfold, and therefore no proof that Hagerman inflicted the injury.

Testimony on Tuesday afternoon included that of Tammy Campos, who lives at the Garden Homes and was a long-time friend of Fistler’s.

Campos testified she was in her apartment about 2:30 that afternoon, talking on her phone, when she heard yelling outside the building. She said she looked out the window and didn’t see anything.

Campos said when she heard more yelling, she looked again and saw a man shouting. She said she went outside to see what was happening.

Although Hagerman lived at the housing facility, Campos said she had not seen him face to face before. She said she asked him who he was and who he was yelling at.

She said Hagerman pointed to the ground and said, “this S.O.B.”

That’s when Campos saw Fistler on the road between two vehicles parked end to end along the street, she said. He was on his stomach, his head turned, with a large bleeding lump on his head. He was unresponsive, but breathing, she said.

“He said he was defending himself,” Campos said of Hagerman, adding that she called 911. Hagerman left and went to his apartment, but did return later.

Rock Falls Police Detective Autumn Day said Hagerman was brought to the Rock Falls Police Department, where she attempted to take his booking photo and fingerprints.

Video from her body camera captured shortly after 4 p.m. Aug. 6, 2022, which was viewed by the jury, showed Hagerman in a booking area at the police department. In that clip he told Day that it was he, not Fistler, who was the victim of assault and that he could press charges.

“He said he shouldn’t be processed,” Day said. “He said that he was the better fighter and that he won.”

Video viewed by the jury also showed Day trying to interview Fistler at CGH Medical Center in Sterling, where he was brought by ambulance after he was discovered bleeding on the road. While he was awake and moving, he did not acknowledge Day’s presence nor answer Day’s questions about the incident.

After the brain injury was detected, he was transferred to a Rockford hospital. Day testified that she was never able to interview Fistler about the fight.

Because Hagerman is accused of inflicting the brain injury but not charged with causing Fistler’s death, the jury did not know Fistler had died until a stipulation regarding possible testimony from Fistler was read by Judge James Heuerman.

The stipulation read to the jury indicated Fistler was injured on Aug. 6, 2022, he was taken to CGH Medical Center for treatment, diagnosed with a brain injury and was transferred to a Rockford hospital for further treatment.

“He can’t appear because he is deceased,” Heuerman read.

Heuerman did not tell the jury that Fistler died Aug. 25, 2022, at Amberwood Care Center in Rockford.

Testimony will resume Wednesday morning.