The second day of the Cody Posey sentencing hearing looked like it would begin relatively quietly. But soon after Judge James Waylon Counts opened the session, things heated up.

Cody Posey, 16, was convicted in Children's Court for the July 5, 2004 shootings of his father, Delbert Paul Posey; his stepmother, Tryone Posey; and his stepsister, Marilea Schmid, 13.

Defense attorney Gary Mitchell first called Jim Forester, a long-time family friend of Posey's grandparents, to make a statement to the court. Children's Court Prosecutor Sandra Grisham objected immediately, believing Forester would talk about his relationship with Posey's grandparents.

"I would ask that we not go into anything having to do with grandparents, parents," said Grisham. "We are here today for the disposition of Cody Posey ... certainly anything he has to say about grandparents is irrelevant."

After approaching the bench, Counts heard arguments from both sides, then told Mitchell to put Forester on the stand as a witness.

Under questioning, Forester described numerous incidents of abuse suffered by Posey at the hands of his father including a horrific incident when Posey was approximately 2 years old.

Forester said the incident marked the first time he met the boy. Forester had gone to fix a heater in a home in Roswell with a friend. Posey's mother, Carla, was at the house with Posey and Posey's sister. At the time, said Forester, Delbert came to the house to get uniforms and he and Carla got into a fight. The fight escalated and Carla allegedly threw the uniforms in Delbert's face.

As Forester worked on the heater, he said Delbert warned Posey to stay away from the area near the heater once or twice, then began to beat the child with a belt.

"He pulled off his belt and then hit him 50 or 75 times," said Forester. "He was hitting him on his face, head, back ... he had giant welts all over him."

Forester said he called out to other family members and as they got to Delbert, who threw Posey onto a couch.

"Paul threw the baby about 10 feet," said Forester. "He bounced on the couch. By that time he couldn't even cry anymore. Urine and feces was running out of his diaper down on to the floor."

Forester said that Delbert was eventually taken to his truck.

"We got (him) out of there and got him gone," said Forester.

Forester then said he saw "hundreds" of incidents during the time Posey lived with Delbert and his second wife, Sandy. Forester saw Posey during regular Sunday visits over seven or eight years because he was friends with Sandy.

"I went to check on Sandy and Cody to make sure they were all right," said Forester. "If it hadn't have been for Sandy, seven years of his life would have been more miserable than they are now."

Following his testimony, Forester made a statement to the court regarding his beliefs about Delbert.

"I believe that just because a person's dead doesn't change anything that they've done," said Forester. "(He) was an awful person as a human being and he treated that kid bad from the time he was born."

Forester's testimony and statement came under strong cross examination by Grisham, who challenged the action or, inaction, Forester took when observing the alleged abuse against Posey. Grisham hammered Forester on the fact that while he had been a counselor at one time, he didn't report any of the incidents to police.

"You were a counselor and you didn't report a child that was beaten with a belt 50 or 60 times?" asked Grisham.

"Yes," said Forester. "I mean, I was going to report that but Carla talked us out of it."

Forester said that at the time of the incident there was no requirement by law to report such abuse.

In the end, Grisham had just one last question.

"You said how brutal and horrible and mean (Delbert) Posey was. But how horrible brutal and mean was Marilea?" said Grisham, angrily.

Appearing a little startled, Forester replied, "I never mentioned Marilea's name."

"No" said Grisham. "You didn't. Pass the witness."

To testify as to Posey's mental health, Mitchell called psychologists to the stand from a center for violent mentally ill boys where Posey was in residence until the beginning of the trial.

Dr. Robert Buser testified regarding Posey's mental health. During his testimony, Buser explained his belief that rather than suffering from psychopathy, as put forth by the prosecution during Monday's arguments, Posey suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to incidents in his life.

Buser, Posey's treating physician at Sequoia, a treatment facility for violent mentally ill boys, described his past experience with PTSD patients and how it relates to Posey himself.

PTSD is a chronic illness, said Buser, caused by traumatic experiences. Buser said he believes not only did the abuse Posey suffered cause the PTSD, but another contributing factor was the death of Posey's mother which Posey saw at the age of 10 during a car accident.

"When he described it (the accident) to me, it was very graphic," Buser said. "He has described consistently a very bad accident. What stood out in my mind was his age, the automobile, it may have been a truck, going off the road. It may have rolled over, his mother was thrown out of the truck and in the frantic aftermath of the accident he and his step-dad were searching around frantically for mom. 'Where's mom?' He described to me in these poignant terms as the ambulance came, 'As they were (putting) me in the ambulance, we found mom.'

"This was on top of already this five to six years of trauma from his father, so the stage was set for him to develop PTSD," Buser said.

When Mitchell asked Buser if he felt Posey is amenable to treatment as a child, a woman in the audience called out, "Yes." Counts immediately had officers remove the woman from the court.

"I will not have that," Counts said.

Buser agreed with the woman's comment, however, and answered Mitchell's question emphatically.

"In my opinion," said Buser, "Cody is very treatable. In my 10 years of experience working at Sequoia with violent adolescents, Cody is very treatable for these problems."

Cross examination of Buser was to resume following a lunch break.

Testimony from prosecution witnesses was to continue Wednesday.