It's been almost two years since the night that changed Jan Phillips's life, and the memories of what happened come back in sharp flashes.

A light knock on the back door. A person in a long black coat with black hair and knee-high boots. And a gun.

"What the hell? Why do you have a gun in my house?" she said at the time, recalling the night during her testimony Tuesday at the first-degree murder trial of Shaylin Sutherland-Kayseas.

Phillips testified her 26-year-old son, Dylan, stepped in front of her to confront the intruder. Then Jan Phillips said she heard a shot.

"What the hell did you shoot him for?" she asked.

Dylan Phillips died at his Saskatoon home on Oct. 14, 2016. Sutherland-Kayseas is on trial at Court of Queen's Bench in Saskatoon for the killing , charged with first-degree murder, murder for the benefit of a criminal organization and two counts of assault with a weapon.

At the time of his death, ​Phillips said her son had just moved home after living on his own in an apartment. The rent had gone up and he wanted to save some money.

It was a normal evening, she said. They'd had supper and dessert and various family members were in different rooms in the Avenue G bungalow.

And then, the knock at the door.

Shaylin Sutherland-Kayseas is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Dylan Phillips. (Facebook)

Phillips testified that she heard the shooter say "shit" or "get the shit," and then everything blurred and sped up.

She said Dylan lunged or fell on the shooter in the family's small back porch. The pair ended up in the backyard with another person slamming Dylan repeatedly with a fence board while he was on the ground, Jan Phillips testified.

Her husband, Dale, joined the fray but she has no specific recollection of how he got outside. She recalled seeing him also getting hit with a board, and seeing a third intruder in the yard.

Mom, I can't breathe. - Dylan Phillips, according to Jan Phillips's testimony

She said Dylan managed to get back into the house but only made it as far as the kitchen.

"Mom, I can't breathe. Call 911," she recalled him saying.

She cradled his head in her arms and asked whether he knew the attackers. He said he did not.

By the time police and paramedics arrived she knew that he was fading, as his breathing was growing more laboured. She was taken to a police cruiser and said later that she knew inside that he'd died "because the ambulance never left."

The trial, which began Monday, continues all week.