A Butler man's defense lawyer urged a jury Monday to keep an open mind during a two-day trial where they will be tasked with determining if Michael L. Jackson is a drug dealer.

“You're going to hear a case about perspective. We must be open to new facts and beliefs,” Brian Farrington said in defense of his client. “Mr. Jackson, like many in our country, struggled with drug addiction,”

Police arrested Jackson on June 27, 2018, during a raid of a home on the 200 block of South Sixth Avenue. The state Office of the Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics led the operation, which followed a controlled drug buy a day earlier.

Jackson faces felony charges of delivery and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, criminal use of a communication facility, and conspiracy to commit all of those same crimes. He is also charged with misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.

And last week, Assistant District Attorney Laura Pitchford added an additional charge of fentanyl possession after she said Jackson rejected a “more than generous” plea deal.

Pitchford took the jury, made up of an all-white panel of eight women and four men, through the Butler city home using photographs taken by police. In the photos, ripped green bags are strewn across the home with a white powder dusting the floor throughout. Pitchford argued that Jackson was using the house to sell various drugs, including heroin, crack, cocaine, fentanyl and oxycodone.

The controlled buy was done by a confidential informant, who testified Monday.

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the informant said, explaining how he became an informant originally. He told the jurors that he was involved in drug activity before the controlled buy and police caught him. He was subsequently turned into an informant and led police to Jackson.

Pitchford plans on calling seven witnesses, most of whom are law enforcement officials, and Farrington plans on calling one witness. Farrington did not indicate any plans to call his client.

A search of the house, documents said, turned up two knotted plastic bags of what appeared to be raw heroin, 27 stamp bags of suspected heroin, and a knotted bag containing 20 plastic bags of suspected crack.

Also allegedly seized were 10 stamp bags of suspected heroin that were inside a box filled with 400 empty stamp bags, nine other boxes containing 4,500 empty stamp bags, and more drug-packaging materials.

Additionally, authorities said, officers found a combined $4,616 in cash, three digital scales, an electronic mixer and metal sifters, and the cell phone used to set up the deal with the informant.

The trial will conclude Tuesday.