SOUTH HAVEN | Mark Easter was out of control, according to witnesses.

Easter, who is in police custody in connection with the Friday night death of 15-year-old Christopher Janus, was pulled from the boy's unresponsive body and then delivered more blows before leaving the scene, the witnesses said.

Easter, 20, and Janus were at the Easter family's Piedmont Road home when an argument started, police said. Easter then apparently chased Janus into a neighbor's yard and beat him.

The neighbor, David Trial, was about to make a late-night sandwich when he heard a commotion outside about 10:30 p.m.

Trial said he heard a voice outside his window that he recognized as Easter's say, "I think I killed him. Don't call the law."

Trial, 64, went into his backyard, where he found Easter punching a body behind a large truck tire used as a planter.

"He kept saying, 'You (expletive), wake up,'" said Trial, who pulled Easter away from Janus.

Easter then moved back to Janus and hit him "as hard as he could" in the face and stomped hard on his chest before leaving the yard, Trial said.

"He (Janus) had footprints all over his chest," said Trial, who held flashlights for emergency medical personnel when they arrived to work on Janus.

"His face looked like he'd been hit by a car," Trial said.

Easter returned to the Trial yard a few minutes later, saying he would evade police. But Trial's wife, Karen, told Easter to lie down in the yard and wait for police to arrive, and Easter complied, Trial said.

Trial's daughter, Tammy Millender, who lives at the same house, said anger rather than alcohol seemed to be spurring Easter.

"He was totally mad. He didn't seem to be drunk," she said.

"It literally sounded like someone was going crazy," Millender said.

Meanwhile, two streets over, Janus' mother and stepfather, Dana and Andy Kalbe, were waiting for Janus to come home for his 11 p.m. curfew when police arrived to tell them of the attack.

Andy Kalbe said his stepson was 5 feet, 7 inches, and weighed 172 pounds. According to police, Easter is 6 feet tall and 285 pounds.

Janus, who just finished his freshman year at Portage High School, was to have traveled the next morning to Kentucky for an extended visit with his father, Kalbe said.

The Kalbes said Janus enjoyed hunting, fishing and playing football.

"He cared about his friends. He had a good heart," Dana Kalbe said of her son.

On Monday, David Trial said he occasionally heard Easter "cussing out" his grandparents from across the street, but that he had a good relationship with Easter.

Easter often played cards and drank pop at the Trial home and was always respectful with the family, Trial said.

"Our kids loved Marky," Millender said.

But for Trial, the weekend incident changed his thinking.

"When I saw how violent he was ... I lost all respect for that kid," Trial said.