Siumei Kao fought for her life and the life of her husband of 45 years, Ching Kao.

Siumei did so as Steven Richard Mulkey beat her and Ching repeatedly with a hammer.

And because she fought, because she would not give up, authorities say, Mulkey then grabbed a knife and slit her throat to make sure she was dead.

The brutal murders of Siumei, 76, and Ching, 77, happened inside their Siesta Motel in Irondale on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018.

Their wrapped, decomposed bodies were found more than a week later in a remote area in Leeds.

There is no dispute that Mulkey, their handyman, carried out the horrific crime. The killings took about 15 minutes, and each minute was captured on the couple’s motel surveillance video.

What jurors will have to decide is if Mulkey knew right from wrong at the time of the murders.

The now-32-year-old suspect has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect to the three counts of capital murder with which he is charged.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

“Normally in a murder case, you don’t get to see exactly what happened. We have to take eyewitnesses, direct evidence, circumstantial evidence, physical evidence from the scene, we take all those things, and we try to paint a picture for you guys to try to help you see and understand and image what happened and how bad it was,’’ Jefferson County Chief Deputy District Attorney Joe Roberts told jurors in opening statements Wednesday.

“That won’t be necessary in this case,’’ said Roberts, who is prosecuting the case with Deputy District Attorney Neal Zarzour. “The video shows exactly what happened. And it shows that this defendant is a cold-blooded killer.”

Mulkey’s attorneys disagree. He is represented by Chris Daniel and Scott Brower.

“You’re going to see evidence of drug addiction for Steven Mulkey, a lifetime of mental illness, poverty, homelessness. What you’re never going to hear (from the defense attorneys) that this is right or good or justified. We’re never going to tell you that,’’ Daniel told the jury.

“This isn’t a case about justification,’’ Daniel said. “It’s about understanding.”

‘Brutally murdered for no reason.’

The Kaos immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan in the late 1970s and eventually became U.S. citizens. They later moved to Alabama when they got the opportunity to buy and open the Siesta Motel on Crestwood Boulevard.

“Their American Dream came true,’’ Roberts said.

The couple had owned the motel since at least 2005, but the business had been closed since January 2018 for code violations. They were the only people living at the motel and were working to fix the violations so they could reopen.

The motel has been demolished in the years since their deaths.

“It was in Irondale that they worked, they lived, and they raised their children,’’ Roberts said.

“They lived their lives there as productive citizens, business owners and they did that until September 2018, until they were brutally murdered for no reason.”

The couple’s daughters, one now a pediatric dentist in California and the other a physician in the Birmingham area, reported their parents missing on Friday, Sept. 21, 2018, when they could not reach them.

When police responded to the hotel, they found a bloody scene and the safe missing. They later determined the brutal murders had taken place on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018.

A review of the surveillance footage quickly identified Mulkey as the suspect.

Mulkey was arrested by U.S. Marshals on Sept. 25, 2018, at the Hometown Inn in Virginia and he told investigators where they could find the bodies.

That same day, the couple’s remains were found about 40 yards off a curvy road off of Rex Lake Road. They had been left just over a ridge.

Court records show Mulkey pleaded guilty in December 2013 to a charge of third-degree robbery.

He was originally charged with first-degree robbery but pleaded to a reduced charge. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with 30 months to serve followed by five years of probation,

Mulkey was sent to Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Center in Tuscaloosa, which is responsible for providing comprehensive psychiatric evaluation/treatment to the criminally committed.

The court ordered that Mulkey continue his mental health treatments once he was released from the facility.

In 2014, according to records, Mulkey’s probation officer reported that mental health officers notified him to say that Mulkey had failed to show up for his “injections” and appointments.

The nature of his mental illness and treatment was not detailed in court records.

‘He dumps them there to decay.’

In his opening statements, Roberts explained to the jury why he does not believe the defense of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, which basically says a suspect at the time of the crime didn’t understand what he or she was doing or that it was wrong.

“For example, what does the defendant do after he commits this awful double murder? He steals their safe, cuts it open, takes the money out,’’ Roberts said.

“He wraps up their dead, lifeless bodies, loads them into the trunk of their Chevy Impala and takes them to a remote location in Leeds and dumps them hoping they will not be found. He dumps them there to decay and to be attacked by animals and torn apart.”

Roberts said Mulkey also ditched the couple’s Chevy Impala, bought an SUV, shaved his head, shaved his beard and got out of town.

“Does that sound like the actions of a person who didn’t know what he was doing was wrong?” Roberts said. “It sounds like somebody who committed theft, somebody who committed robbery and somebody that committed murder and didn’t want to get caught.”

“The evidence in this case is clear. The evidence in this case is strong. And it’s time he be held responsible for his actions,’’ Roberts said.

Daniel, in his opening statements, discussed the evidence that the jury would see – bloody crime scene photos, the video of the murders and video interviews with Mulkey.

They would also learn, he said, that Mulkey’s backpack bearing his name, along with the murder weapon, was found in the couple’s car.

He said at the time of the murders, Mulkey was living at the nearby Economy Lodge and earning money by doing odd jobs for local businesses.

“They’d give him money here and there and he’d take that money and he’d go back to the Econo Lodge and spend it on drugs,’’ Daniel said. “He wasn’t feeding himself. He was feeding his drug habit.”

Daniel said Mulkey had dealt with mental illness since he was a child. He was raised in the DHR system until he aged out. “They just pushed him out,’’ Daniel said.

With no access to health care or medical insurance, he self-medicated with narcotics.

‘What have I done?’

On the day of the murders, Daniel said, Mulkey had gone with Siumei to cut grass at one of the couple’s other properties. There was no argument or any problems, he said.

Mulkey, however, was doing drugs the entire time and continue when they returned to Siesta Motel.

“He puts the lawnmower up. As he does that, he takes a large amount of cocaine,’’ Daniel said. “Right then and there.”

“He goes inside, and these drugs are building up in his body and he goes into the office,’’ Daniel said. “An argument ensues.”

“In that moment, not the hours before or after, his lifetime of mental illness and his crippling drug addiction combined and exactly what Mr. Roberts said happened, happened,’’ Daniel said.

“Afterwards, he looks down and he’s seeing what he’s done,’’ the attorney said. “You can see it in the video where it hits him, ‘What I have done?’

Daniel said this isn’t a case about what happened. It’s a case about why it happened.

“No sane person would have done what Steven did, none,’’ Daniel said. “No sane person would have taken the backpack with their name on it and left it in the trunk of the car next to the hammer. No sane person would have seen the video cameras and left them there.’

Daniel said under state law, jurors must find Mulkey not guilty if they believe he didn’t know right from wrong at the moment of the killing.

“That’s not forgiving him. You’d be saying you are guilty of what you did, we’re finding you guilty but, but in this circumstance, we believe you have shown us you couldn’t appreciate what you were doing,’’ Daniel said.

“The state says intent can be formed in an instant and that’s absolutely right. The same instant that can inform intent can break a man’s insanity,’’ he said. “That moment is what he’s on trial for.”

‘Something wasn’t right.’

After two and a half days of jury selection, one of the first witnesses Wednesday was Irondale police Lt. Jason Hill, who testified he knew the Kaos for about 15 years through his work as an officer. He said he would check on them multiple times a week and visit with them.

Their granddaughter, Hill said, was a student in his wife’s elementary class.

He said he also knew Mulkey from seeing him doing work at the motel.

Hill said that he was notified when the daughters reported the couple missing. He knew they had been planning a vacation, so he said he wasn’t initially concerned.

The following morning while at work, Hill drove by the motel about 2:30 a.m. and noticed all the lights were out. That was unusual and caught his attention.

Hill said he then noticed a car driving through the parking lot and eventually turned on his blue lights as he met up with Mulkey in the Chevy Impala. He knew it was the Kao’s vehicle.

They talked and Mulkey said the couple was out of town and he was there to feed their dog, Hill said.

Mulkey explained that he had fallen asleep watching television and that’s why he was there at that early hour to feed the dog.

Some of what Mulkey said matched up with what Hill believed to be the case – that the couple was out of town visiting family.

Still, he ran Mulkey’s driver’s license over the police radio just have it on record.

It was then that Mulkey’s behavior changed, Hill said, and he became overly complimentary.

“He was thanking me for my service, and people do that sometimes, but it was just overboard,’’ Hill said.

At that point in his testimony, Hill began to cry and struggled to maintain composure.

“I just knew something wasn’t right,” he said.

Hill said he checked out the motel but found no signs of forced entry, or broken glass or anything else amiss.

The couple’s dog, a miniature dachshund which usually barked at Hill, was standing in the doorway of the motel.

“It always barked at me when I was there,’’ Hill said. “That night, that dog just sat there and whelped. Looking back, I know why.”

It was later that day police returned to the motel and found the carnage.

Testimony will resume on Thursday.