Bernie Pyne has publicly defended his son Jeffrey just as the case against the former high school valedictorian accused of killing his mother in the family garage is expected to go to a jury today.

"It's a tough thing to go through," Bernie Pyne told reporters outside a Michigan courthouse Thursday. "All I can tell you is that I know my son, my son would never harm his mother. He would never harm her."

Pyne, 22, a former star athlete and University of Michigan biology student, is accused of killing his mentally ill mother, Ruth Pyne, 51, who was beaten and stabbed 16 times in the family's Highland Township, Mich., garage in May 2011.