The murder trial for the Turlock man accused of beating a man to death over a traffic incident continued Tuesday with a series of law enforcement witnesses testifying to the forensic evidence collected during the investigation.

Michael Hoyt, 53, is on trial for second-degree murder for the murder of 67-year-old Kenneth Winter in February 2010. The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office contends Hoyt was angered by Winter over a traffic incident on Paulson Road and attacked the elderly man on the rural road. The defense claims Winter was intoxicated and the aggressor in the altercation and that Hoyt acted in self-defense.

Winter suffered a ruptured spleen in the incident and died hours later at Emanuel Medical Center. He had a blood alcohol level of .20 percent.

On Tuesday several investigators with the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department testified to the evidence collected and processed from the area on Paulson where the altercation occurred, including several droplets of blood on the road and blood smears inside and outside of Winter’s truck.