The two punches that left a south suburban project engineer blind and paralyzed came as three people enjoying a summer night took shelter from the rain, according to testimony at a Will County bench trial Monday.

It was triggered by a seemingly innocuous comment over a bloodstained white T-shirt with a graphic design that is popular, a police sergeant testified, among mixed-martial-arts fans.

Former Lincoln-Way Central High School baseball standout Joe Messina, 23, of New Lenox, is being tried on three counts of aggravated battery, charged with throwing the punches while celebrating his 21st birthday at 191 South, a Mokena bar and restaurant.

Eric Bartels, now 29, and three friends also had gone out that night to 191 South. Bartels and his best friend's sister Anna Minette were waiting for their ride about 1 a.m. July 24, 2009, she testified Monday.

They waited under the same canopy outside 191 South as Messina, whom they didn't know.

Minette, now 28, testified that she noticed a spot on Messina's right shoulder. "Excuse me, you have something on the back of your shirt," she said.

She testified that Messina turned his head and responded, "Don't worry about it — it's just blood."

Minette testified that she and Bartels both thought "that's odd" and Bartels told Messina "he should take care of that."

The comment sent Messina into a rage, she testified. "He kind of just (started) yelling," she said. "'It's going to be your blood.'"

Bartels and Minette were moving away when she heard "a loud crack" behind her and turned to see Bartels sprawled out on the pavement, with "blood pooling around his head," she testified.

A prosecutor said in his opening remarks that several sober witnesses saw Messina throw the punches and that Bartels' DNA was found on Messina's shirt and pants.

"When that punch came in and hit Eric Bartels, he fell like a tree," said Assistant State's Attorney Christopher Koch.

Messina's defense attorney indicated in his opening statement that Messina may rely on a misidentification defense — suggesting that another man hit Bartels. In a pending civil case against Messina, he argued that the punches were thrown in self-defense.

"This is an absolute tragedy," defense attorney David Carlson said. "When you look at the basic facts … there simply isn't proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

Bartels survived the attack but was left with such massive brain injuries that he now lives in the dining room of his mother's Tinley Park home, his mother, Jan Bartels, said after court.

"He had a very bright future ahead," she said. "Now every day is a challenge. Every day I have to see my son like this. He can't move, he can't see, he can't speak, he can't eat. All he can do is hear."

She plays country music for him on his iPod, but she hasn't yet told him that the trial has started. His son is now 6, she said.

"I've already been through the difficult part," Jan Bartels said. "This part is justice."

sschmadeke@tribune.com