A Fort Dodge man made a “conscious decision” to shoot his father on a fall night in 2023, a prosecutor told jurors as a first-degree murder trial commenced in Webster County District Court Thursday morning.

Olnario Rodriguez-Ruffridge, 21, is on trial for first-degree murder in connection with the Oct. 1, 2023, death of his father, 44-year-old Jason Ruffridge. The fatal shooting occurred at the younger man’s home at 225 Third Ave. N.W. It was reported at 8:42 p.m. that day.

Ruffridge was pronounced dead at the scene.

Rodriguez-Ruffridge was initially taken into custody on a charge of being a minor in possession of a handgun, He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder on Oct. 4, 2023, and has been in jail since then.

“The evidence will show a cold, calculating decision on the part of the defendant to shoot his father that evening,” Assistant Webster County Attorney Bailey Taylor said during her opening argument.

She said Rodriguez-Ruffridge shot his father four times. She said he fired one shot at his father’s head “from a downward angle at close range.”

The weapon was later identified as a Ruger .380 handgun.

According to Taylor, Ruffridge and his girlfriend, Carrie Fritz, were visiting Rodriguez-Ruffridge when the two men got into an argument that escalated into a physical fight.

Taylor said when Ruffridge and Fritz were leaving the house, Rodriguez-Ruffridge armed himself and fired three shots in quick succession followed by a fourth shot.

Arach Wilson III, the lead defense attorney, said Rodriguez-Ruffridge and Ruffridge had gotten into an argument over the medical care of the younger man’s daughter who was 1-year-old at the time. He said the argument became a bloody fight.

“He’s beating my client, strangling my client,” Wilson said in his opening argument.

He described blood splattered around the bathroom of the house, and added that all of that blood came from Rodriguez-Ruffridge.

Fritz was the prosecution’s first witness. She described the two men getting into a fight.

When she and Ruffridge left the house, she went out the door first, followed by him, she testified.

“I heard a pop, pop, pop,” she said.

She said she ran down a hill away from the house, called 911 and then ran back up the hill to find Ruffridge laying face down on the ground.

“I put my hands on him and shook him a little bit,” she said.

She said he did not move or speak.

Court will not be in session today due to anticipated bad weather. The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday.