TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – After more than one hundred court motions over a dozen years, a jury has now been seated to hear the case against a Pasco County man charged with murdering his roommate and dismembering the body.

Stephen Perry had fallen on hard times when he moved into a Zephyrhills home with James Davis in late 2009. He was best known as a writer for several cartoons including ThunderCats.

In May 2010, Perry vanished.

Police investigated his disappearance as a missing person’s case until deputies in two counties made gruesome discoveries.

“The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office recovered a right arm from the dumpster there at the Quality Inn,” Zephyrhills Police Captain Robert McKinney said in 2010. “And the torso was located on Foamflower Boulevard in Wesley Chapel by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.”

The 12-year-old arrest warrant outlines how detectives built their case against now 56-year-old Davis.

He was already locked up in Land O’ Lakes on unrelated drug charges when police charged him in July 2010 with first degree murder.

The mother of Perry’s 5-year-old son spoke with 8 On Your Side before deputies began recovering the writer’s body parts.

“It’s hard to imagine he’s dead,” Krystall Carroll said. “My son will never see his father again.”

The Quality Inn on Bearrs Boulevard is where deputies found Perry’s abandon van after guests reported an awful stench to management.

Store receipts found in the van led investigators to review surveillance video that identified Davis as the person making the purchases.

The detective writes items include a circular saw blade from a Land O’ Lakes Walmart.

Early on, Davis entered a not guilty plea.

More than a decade later, Pasco County prosecutors will finally try to convince a jury he’s guilty in the murder and dismemberment case.

“I don’t know what the purpose would have been for that other than for an easier disposal of the body,” McKinney said back in 2010.

Opening statements are set to begin Monday morning in Dade City.

News Channel 8 will have a crew in the courtroom for the start of the trial.