UPDATED at 1:37 p.m. with trial testimony.

CLAYTON • Todd L. Shepard talked for years about killing police and igniting a revolution but people "didn't take it seriously," a former friend testified today in Shepard's first-degree murder trial in the slaying of a University City police sergeant.

"There was absolutely no question he had a complete disdain for police, with police authority," said Ryan Harshmann, who identified himself as a friend in 2007-08. "It had more to do with the uniform than the face behind the uniform. Once you put on the police uniform, you were the enemy to him."

Officials have said they know of no connection between Shepard and Sgt. Michael King until Shepard allegedly walked up to King's parked patrol car on Leland Avenue and Delmar Boulevard about 10:20 p.m. Oct. 31, 2008, and fired five shots with a stolen .38 caliber pistol.

Three slugs hit King, 50, in the head but the fatal shot went into his shoulder and through a lung and the aorta, St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch told the jury in this morning's opening statement. One round did not pierce King's skin.

Police tracked Shepard, now 43, of Berkeley, after another officer read the license number of a car fleeing the scene.

Melody Newsom, Shepard's fiancee, told the court she had known him about 20 years and had lived with him almost four years. He talked daily, she said, about starting a revolution "to make things better for the lower class people with the killing of police."

Like Harshmann, she said those around Shepard did not take it seriously. Sometimes people would leave a room to get away from Shepard's talk, or ask her to get him to stop, Newsom said.

She told the court he left home about 9:30 the night of the murder, saying he was going to Wellston. She said she got a phone call between 10 and 10:30 p.m., which would be about the time of the murder, but could not understand what he was saying because there was too much noise in the background. She said she did not speak with him again until after his arrest.

Under cross-examination, defense lawyer Robert Steele, asked, "The only thing he did was talk, is that right."

Newsom replied, "Yes."

She said she was not aware of any weapon in their home, and never saw Shepard try to recruit anyone into the revolution. She also said Shepard would sometimes read several books at a time, alternating pages among them.

McCulloch, prosecuting the case personally, is seeking a death sentence for Shepard.

Shepard's writings, and tape recordings of him, are expected to be used as evidence in the trial in court in Clayton. Jurors are sequestered; the trial is expected to last through the week. The defense reserved its opening statement until after the prosecution has completed its evidence.

Shepard is already serving a 23-year federal prison sentence on an unrelated drug charge.