At the start of trial in a gruesome fatal beating Tuesday, both prosecutors and the defense had a message for jurors: The video is key.

       And there is much of it. Anthony Jackson beat Sanchez Mixon in March 2013 on a CTA Green Line platform that is blanketed with cameras. Early in Tuesday’s presentation of evidence, prosecutors displayed the footage: Mixon approaching Jackson, the two men briefly speaking, then Jackson hauling off and punching Mixon, throwing him to the ground, kicking him in the head.

       The footage, crucially, has no audio. Any conversation between the two men was not captured, and neither was audio of Jackson yelling across the train tracks platform, presumably addressing the passengers on the southbound platform, who were telling him to stop.

       Prosecutors argued that the video showed a clear-cut case of first-degree murder. Jackson “brutally stomped a man to death without any justification or justifiable provocation,” Assistant State’s Attorney Yolanda Lippert said in her opening statement.

       “This defendant grabs him by the clothes, swings him toward the tracks,” she said. “It’s not good enough for Anthony Jackson that (Mixon is) down on the ground, hurt, defenseless, provoking nothing. He continues, kicks him in the head. Stomps on his head. Over and over again.”

       When Jackson’s brother, attorney George Jackson III, stepped up for his opening statement, he urged jurors to “pay attention to the nuances of what is unfolding” on the video.

       He noted that after Anthony Jackson delivered “three punches, two kicks, a stomp,” he turned to address the people on the opposite platform, seemingly to explain that he was acting in self-defense.

       But he did not specify in opening statements what he claims had justified the beating, saying he would bring that out later in the trial.

       For years, the case has been marked by George Jackson’s unusual behavior. Before jurors were brought into the room, he had several spirited exchanges with the judge. They sparred over whether George Jackson could mention that he is Anthony’s brother, and to what extent he could argue that race played a factor in the case.

       And as the morning showed signs of getting mired in back-and-forths between prosecutors, Jackson and Judge Ursula Walowski, the judge nipped it in the bud.

       “We’re starting a jury! I’m not going to hear anything else,” she said. “This occurred in 2013, both sides answered ready, we went through (pretrial motions), if something comes up during a trial which is a surprise or which has not been shared I will deal with it then.”

       The trial proceeded relatively smoothly from there, with prosecutors calling to the witness stand police personnel, Mixon’s aunt, and an eyewitness who saw the beating from the opposite CTA platform across the tracks.

       Anthony Jackson had been convicted of the murder at his first trial in 2015, but his brother successfully got the conviction tossed out on grounds that one of his previous attorneys was ineffective.

       Particularly interesting, given the history of the case, was George Jackson’s remark in opening statements that jurors would not hear them say anything bad about Mixon.

       “One standard practice is to bring out all the negativity you can about the purported victim. We’re doing none of that. None of that,” he told jurors. “You’re not going to hear a word from us about any negativity about Sanchez Mixon other than what’s on the tape.”

       That tactic is somewhat unexpected. Anthony Jackson was granted a new trial in part because his prior attorney did not try to bring in evidence of Mixon’s alleged history of or propensity toward violence. And before opening statements, Walowski told Jackson he could present jurors with evidence about Mixon’s mental health records, which allegedly show that he had violent tendencies.

       That kind of evidence could go to bolster the Jacksons’ self-defense claims.

       mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com

       As brother defends brother in murder trial, both sides emphasize video of 2013 fatal beating on CTA platform

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