The trial for an Avondale woman, charged with capital murder in a 1995 cold case, began this morning with opening statements and testimony.

Tricia Faye Abney, now 42, was arrested in 2015 and charged with robbing and killing Justin Barnett, who was 23 at the time he disappeared.

Barnett's remains have never been found.

Barnett was still considered a missing person until January 2015, when Birmingham police Cold Case Detective Jonathan Ross said a man came forward, saying he had information about a 20-year-old unsolved case. That man-- Abney's brother Johnathan Abney-- said he was living with Abney and her boyfriend Jeff Martin in 1995. Johnathan Abney slept on the couch in the small one-bedroom apartment, and told Ross that he saw Barnett's dismembered body in the bathtub of the shared apartment.

"He said he knew of a murder case that happened 20 years ago,'' Ross previously said. "He had dealt with it for 20 years and it was eating up his conscience."

Opening statements began around 9:30 a.m. in Jefferson County Circuit Judge Laura Petro's courtroom. Deputy District Attorney Kylie Jernigan spoke first, detailing what Johnathan Abney said about the night of the crime. She said Barnett's head and arms were cut off and placed in black trash bags, while his torso was wrapped in a bloody carpet. Barentt's remains were buried in a Bibb County field, where Jernigan said police are still searching for any remains that might still be there after 20 years.

"Twenty years is so much time... nobody knows that like Justin Barnett's family, how precious time is."

Jernigan said, "This is the time. It is time. It is time for [Tricia Abney] to be held accountable for her actions and for the role she played in the well-planned... robbery and death of Justin Barnett."

One of Abney's attorneys, Emory Anthony, also made an opening statement. He stressed that Barnett was a drug dealer who sold cocaine and ecstasy, and who also frequented Sammy's, a local strip club. "The young man was at Sammy's and offered to give [Abney] a ride home," Anthony said. "This was not a planned event."

Anthony said "not one time" did Abney tell police she stabbed Barnett, or admit to being involved in the crime. He said when police spoke with Abney several times, she was not even considered a suspect.

After the man who Abney was dating at the time of Barnett's disappearance committed suicide in 2015, Anthony said Abney became police's prime suspect.

"This is not about sympathy... This is about facts and evidence," Anthony said. "[Abney] did not conspire, she did not aid or abet anyone in the killing of this young man."

Johnathan Abney took the stand Tuesday. Johnathan Abney said he and his sister, who is just 18 months older than he is, moved in with their aunt and uncle in 1986, after the Abneys' parents died. They lived with their relatives until Abney was 17, and his sister started dating a man named Jeff Martin. There was a "big falling out" between Martin, Tricia Abney, and the Abenys' uncle, so Tricia moved in with Martin and his father in Blount County.

Soon after, the couple got an apartment at the Sunrise East complex near Century Plaza mall and invited Johnathan Abney to live with them.

In 1995, Johnathan Abney was 18. He knew Barnett as his sister's drug dealer, and had even met Barnett at the 23-year-old's Southside apartment.

The night of June 3, 1995, he said his sister and Martin dropped him off at Superbowl in Tarrant at 8:30 p.m., because his sister said it was Martin's birthday and the couple wanted some alone time. Later, Johnathan Abney discovered that day was not Martin's birthday, and his birthday was not in the month of June at all.

Johnthan Abney called his sister several times when he was ready to go home, but she didn't answer. Sometime in the early-morning hours, Abney and Martin picked up Johnathan and headed back to the apartment. Johnathan said during the ride, Martin said, "We had to take care of Justin."

As soon as the three got home and walked into their apartment, Johnathan Abney saw bleach spots on the carpet. Johnathan Abney said his sister and Martin led him into the bedroom and the bathroom, where he saw a man's legs hanging over the side of the bathtub. Both the head and arms had been cut off, and were inside black trash bags on the floor. "I can't even recall any warning for what I was fixing to see," Johnathan Abney said Tuesday.

Johnathan Abney went into the living room, where he said he sat on the couch in shock. Martin ripped up the bloodied carpet and rolled the remainder of the body up in it, while his sister was in the kitchen washing knives "like it was nothing."

Martin then placed the body and the trash bags in his vehicle, Johnathan Abney said. He was told to drive a Geo Prizm-- the car Barnett was driving that night-- and follow his sister and Martin to Lakeview. There, the three left the Prizm, and Johnathan Abney got into Martin's car with Martin and his sister.

Then, the three rode to a Bibb County field, where Abney and Martin disposed of the body in a wooded area. Johnathan Abney said he stayed by the car, while Martin buried Barnett's remains. His sister alternated helping Martin and sitting by the car with Johnathan Abney, he said.

Police have not yet located Barnett's remains in the area Johnathan Abney described.

Sheila Horton, Barnett's girlfriend at the time he disappeared, also testified Tuesday. She and Barnett met in 1993, and moved together to Birmingham in 1994. They moved into an apartment on Southside, and both found jobs.

Horton said she knew Barnett sold marijuana-- she didn't approve of it, so they didn't talk about it much. She did know that he kept the drug and cash stowed in a backpack he always carried.

On the night of June 3, 1995, Horton said she went with friends to a party. Barnett took her car, a Geo Prizm, to meet some of his friends.

Horton said when she came home around 2 a.m., her boyfriend wasn't there. "I was concerned... but I just thought, well, he'll be home later." When Horton woke up and Barnett still wasn't home, she knew something was wrong.

Horton said she paged Barnett numerous times, but he never contacted her. She called Birmingham police, who suggested she report her car stolen-- the police would be more apt to look for a stolen car than a missing person, Horton said officers told her.

Several days went by, but Barnett never called. Horton's friend found her car parked in the Birmingham's Lakeview area, but Horton said there was no sign of Barnett in the car. "I didn't find anything out of the ordinary," she said about her Prizm. She called police, but they did not examine the car.

In the next days and weeks, Horton called all of Barnett's friends and went anywhere she thought Barnett might be. Her mom even came to Birmingham from South Carolina to help Horton put up missing person fliers.

Barnett's clothes were still at their apartment, and his bank account hadn't been used. "I knew he didn't just leave," Horton, visibly emotional, said.

After hearing from a friend that Barnett may have visited Sammy's the night he went missing, Horton went to the club and asked to speak with someone she heard was last seen with her boyfriend. The manager told her that person no longer worked there.

Horton tried contacting police several more times, but she said detectives ignored her and said Barnett had probably run off with another girl. After months, Horton stopped trying to contact Birmingham police.

Under cross examination from Anthony, Horton said she had not known Barnett to sell any drug other than marijuana-- even though Johnathan Abney said there were ecstasy pills and cocaine in Barnett's backpack-- and also did not know he frequented Sammy's.

Horton said she left Birmingham in August 1997.

Abney was a dancer at Sammy's at the time of Barnett's disappearance, and she told detectives Barnett would visit the club and "throw a lot of money at her."

She told police Martin was the one who stabbed Barnett and dismembered him.

When Birmingham police went to Mobile to interview Martin, who was married and living a "normal life" there, Martin refused to speak to detectives. Six days later, he committed suicide.

At a preliminary hearing in 2015, Anthony questioned Ross on whether Abney's rights were violated during her police interview.

Under cross examination from Anthony, Johnathan Abney said he only formally met Barnett that one time at the Southside apartment-- the other times, he had just seen Barnett from the car or when his sister was meeting Barnett to buy drugs.

Anthony also questioned Johnathan Abney about his police interviews and statements, and his truthfulness throughout those interviews. Johnathan Abney said he asked detectives to allow him to speak with his sister at police headquarters, and denied lying to her when Anthony showed transcripts from the interview where Johnathan Abney said to his sister several times, "You couldn't have done this" and "I know you didn't do anything." Johnathan Abney said he was just trying to get his sister to talk to police at that time.

Anthony also pointed out discrepancies in Johnathan Abney's first, written statement to police. In the statement, Johnathan Abney said used the term "they" several times instead of using specifically Martin's or Abney's names. When asked why he didn't go to the police station when he was driving the Prizm to Lakeview, or why he helped replace the carpet in the apartment after Barnett's remains were buried, Johnathan Abney said his sister was "the only person that I had in the world."

Abney also admitted to threatening his sister about a year before he went to police in 2015, stating that Tricia Abney was calling his wife and children. "I said I'd make sure she spends the rest of her life in prison," Johnathan Abney said during testimony.

He said after making the threat, he did not have contact with his sister for over a year and finally went to police to "make things right."

Abney is currently free on a $60,000 bond. Jefferson County Deputy District Attorney Neal Zarzour is also prosecuting; Wakisha Hazzard is also representing Abney.

Testimony will continue throughout the afternoon and into Wednesday.