BEND — Luke Wirkkala took the stand in his defense Friday, March 27, insisting once again he had no choice but to shoot his houseguest David Ryder in 2013.

“I was defending myself and my family in my home,” Wirkkala said to the question posed by his lawyer: Why did he shoot Ryder?

It’s a question the jury will ultimately consider in the retrial of Wirkkala, 40, who’s accused of killing Ryder after a day spent drinking together. Wirkkala claims he acted in self-defense after Ryder strangled and tried to rape him. A jury convicted Wirkkala in 2014, but in 2018, the Oregon Court of Appeals vacated that conviction because, it ruled, the jury heard a portion of a police interview after Wirkkala had invoked his right to an attorney.

Friday was the sixth day of Wirkkala’s second trial, held in an exposition hall at the Deschutes County fairgrounds that’s filling in for the Deschutes County Circuit Court. Wirkkala faces a life sentence if convicted.

“This event was the most traumatic moment of my life and being here and discussing it is bringing it back and yeah, it’s pretty tough,” he told the jury.

The state rested its case on March 26. That afternoon, medical doctor Dan Field testified for the defense the scratch marks on Wirkkala’s neck visible after the shooting appeared to be the

result of being strangled from the front.

Though Wirkkala has sat at the defendant’s table over the last eight years, it’s Ryder whose character has been parsed more in the courtroom and by the media.

Ryder, 31, was a software engineer at G5 Digital Marketing in Bend. He was married and had a 2-year-old child.

Several people were prepared to testify for Wirkkala’s defense that Ryder was “hypersexual” and aggressive toward passed out males. This and other evidence of “prior bad acts” was excluded from the first trial, and in January, Judge Randy Miller ruled it would be kept out of the second, dealing a major blow to Wirkkala’s defense.

Following the lunch break on March 27, Wirkkala was sworn in. The jurors listened intently and took notes on court-provided legal pads.

He testified that as he and Ryder watched Super Bowl 47 at the Hideaway Tavern in 2013, there were no arguments or hostility between them. Afterward, Wirkkala’s girlfriend, Rachel Rasmussen, drove the three of them back to the home she shared with Wirkkala, arriving around 8:30 p.m.

“I wasn’t good to drive and neither was Ryder,” Wirkkala said.

Ryder’s blood alcohol level at autopsy was determined to be .23. Wirkkala’s blood was drawn 12 hours after the shooting and a forensic expert determined his blood alcohol level was between .18 and .38 at the time of the shooting.

Rasmussen and the two children in the house went to bed between 10 and 10:30 p.m., and the two men listened to music, hovered around a computer and shuffled out to the back deck, where they smoked cigarettes. They talked about the Bend brewery scene, past life experiences — “nothing too serious,” he testified March 27.

“Just typical drinking banter, really,” he said.

As Feb. 3 turned to Feb 4, Wirkkala arrived at the “nod-off point” while seated on the couch, he testified.

Wirkkala claims he passed out and awoke to Ryder pulling his pants off him, then forcing him to perform oral sex. Shocked and scared, Wirkkala broke free and went to his bedroom to retrieve his shotgun. Wirkkala claims he commanded Ryder to leave and Ryder refused and instead charged at him, prompting Wirkkala to fire from 3 feet away, he told the courtroom.

With prior bad acts excluded, Wirkkala’s lawyer, Thad Betz, led his client to discuss conversations he had with Ryder about the latter’s supposed taste for fighting and a violent arrest in Kentucky.

Prosecutor Kristin Hoffmeyer objected to the line of questioning.

“The defendant just testified he was so drunk he was seeing double and now we’re going to listen to him recount conversations he had in detail?” Hoffmeyer said.

Betz countered that the testimony was critical in showing Wirkkala’s mindset at the time he pulled the trigger.

“It shows an effort by Ryder to groom Mr. Wirkkala for a sexual encounter,” Betz said.

The judge sided with the defense and allowed Wirkkala to testify about discussions about violence he says he had with Ryder.

Hoffmeyer began her cross-examination with the question: “It sure is good to be the last man standing in a case like this, isn’t it?”

“That’s not how I would describe it,” Wirkkala said.

Hoffmeyer asked, wasn’t it true he was the sole survivor of the encounter? Wirkkala responded that Rasmussen, her son and her nephew were also survivors.

Hoffmeyer turned to another line of questioning. “Let’s talk about how much you had to drink that night.”

A sidebar was soon called and Judge Miller dismissed the jury early for the weekend.

Wirkkala will retake the witness stand when trial resumes Tuesday morning, March 30.