In an evidence photo shown to jurors Wednesday, one scar is visible on Shiloh Edsitty's neck, and others can be seen on his upper chest. Photos by Jeff Scheid. In a videotape shown to jurors in Clark County District Court, Shiloh Edsitty talks about the night he and his mother were stabbed. An evidence photo shows the knife that was broken off in Shiloh's chest. James Valdez, 32, watches the videotaped deposition of Shiloh Edsitty on Wednesday in District Court. Valdez could face the death penalty in the November 2004 fatal stabbing of the teen's 31-year-old mother, Teresa Tilden.

While a jury watched a videotape of him testifying about how his mother's attacker had slashed her chin and neck, Shiloh Edsitty sat with his ninth-grade homework in an office next to the courtroom.

The 15-year-old, who had a kitchen knife broken off in his chest during the same Nov. 8, 2004, attack, is the only witness to the fatal stabbing of 31-year-old Teresa Tilden. He was ineligible to take the witness stand this week because of his hypnotherapy last year to help him deal with what his therapist described as post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Nevada law sets several restrictions on hypnosis for potential witnesses. In August, before his hypnotherapy, Shiloh testified and was cross-examined before a video camera in District Judge Joseph Bonaventure's courtroom.

In the grainy footage, Shiloh said 32-year-old James Valdez, the man prosecutors say deserves to be executed, is the man who killed his mother.

"And he (Valdez) tried to kill me too," Shiloh testified.

On the night of the stabbings, Valdez had tried to leave their apartment near Eastern Avenue and Warm Springs Road several times, but Tilden would not let him, Shiloh testified.

At one point, Valdez grabbed a knife from the kitchen and threatened to stab Tilden if she did not allow him to leave, Shiloh said. His mother told Valdez she was not afraid of him and pushed him, Shiloh said.

Valdez then grabbed his mother from behind and cut her chin, the boy testified. Autopsy photos displayed for jurors showed a deep gash through the side of Tilden's chin and neck. She suffered eight other stab wounds.

After Valdez attacked his mother, Shiloh testified, Valdez stabbed him. The knife broke off in his chest.

"I looked down, and I saw my blood, and I fell on the ground," Shiloh said.

The next thing Shiloh remembered was Valdez dragging him into the kitchen where he got another knife. Valdez then held Shiloh's shoulder down with his left hand and stabbed him, the boy testified.

He said his mother began screaming, and Valdez returned his attention to Tilden.

"He probably thought I would be dead in a couple of seconds," Shiloh said.

But Shiloh got up, slipped his shoes on at the door and ran out of the apartment for help as Valdez chased him.

A security officer for the apartment complex intervened, and Valdez began to chase the guard around a flower bed before fleeing the complex.

Valdez's defense attorneys, Michael Cristalli and Marc Saggese, are trying to convince the jury that Tilden and Valdez were drunk and were fighting and that Shiloh first stabbed Valdez, at the urging of his mother. That first cut, through Valdez's left hand, drove Valdez to start inflicting wounds on both Tilden and her son, Saggese said during opening statements.

An expert witness, who Saggese said might testify today, is expected to discuss frontal lobe damage Valdez has suffered that makes him prone to spontaneous decisions.

Shiloh testified that he thought Valdez knew what he was doing.

"I thought about it to myself every night. He did know," the teen said.

Cristalli asked Shiloh during the videotaped hearing whether his mother had asked him to get a knife to stab Valdez during the initial fight.

"She (Tilden) said, 'Get a knife,'" Shiloh told Cristalli. "But I didn't get it. I said, 'No.' I said, 'Just let him go.'"

In an interview with the Review-Journal on Wednesday morning, Shiloh said neither he nor his mother held a knife during any of the arguing or fighting that night.

"I just didn't stab him," the teen said. "I thought it was kind of retarded (that) they say that I did."

Prosecutors offered jurors a theory on Valdez's wound during their questioning of Las Vegas police Detective James Vaccaro, who investigated the homicide.

Vaccaro told the court Wednesday that n for attackers to stab themselves during knife fights is a common occurrence.

"Everything is bloody and slippery," Vaccaro said, suggesting that an assailant's left hand holding a victim could slip into the path of a knife as the right hand thrust the knife at the victim.

Shiloh told the Review-Journal that he did not know how Valdez received the large wound to his left hand.

The teen said he is still attending hypnotherapy sessions, and he thinks it is helping him.

Had he been allowed to face the jury Wednesday and answer questions in person, his testimony would have changed little from his statements in August, he said.

He moved to upstate New York with his guardian, Vivian Powell, after his mother's death, but in 2005, they moved to Salt Lake City.

He said he still plays basketball and some football, and his friends at school know about his mother. He said he does not try to hide how he feels and does not try to suppress his anger about his mother's killing.

He was at the courthouse Wednesday because Powell had to testify about the knife scars on his chest, arms and neck.

But Shiloh might yet have his own moments on the witness stand.

If the jury convicts Valdez of first-degree murder, prosecutors will ask jurors to sentence Valdez to death.

During the penalty hearing, Shiloh would be allowed tell jurors, in person, how the slaying has affected his life, but he said he is not sure he wants to take the witness stand.

"I got to really think about that," he said. "Sometimes, I just don't want to even look at him. It's not about the jury or anybody else -- just, not him."