ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — A teen facing life in prison for killing his family took the witness stand Thursday to describe the lifetime of abuse that he says drove him to kill his parents and stepsister.

New Mexico teen Cody Posey testified with composure as he detailed one horrific instance after another of abuse at the hands of his father and stepmother, whom he has admitted to shooting, along with his stepsister, in their home on July 5, 2004.

Cody's lawyer, Gary Mitchell, promised jurors that his client's testimony would help them understand why he had gunned down father Paul Posey, stepmother Tryone, and 13-year-old stepsister Marilea Schmid, on a ranch that Sam Donaldson owned.

"I guess the general question is: How much are we going to demand of a child?" said Mitchell, who choked back tears during much of his emotional opening statement Thursday. "How much do we ask him to tolerate, and do we allow him to defend himself?"

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Defense attorney Gary Mitchell gave an emotional opening statement Thursday.

Mitchell promised jurors they would hear from classmates and ranch hands on the Donaldson property who allegedly witnessed Paul and Tryone Posey's torment of their son, who was 14 when he killed them and buried their bodies in a manure pile.

"I have lost count of how many times I was getting punched, slapped or kicked around. It was a normal scene around the household," the clean-cut 16-year-old calmly testified. "I'd been hit so often I believed it was a natural thing to hit kids."

Jurors saw photographs documenting Cody's earliest memory of abuse, in second grade, when his father beat his buttocks with a board for bad grades, leaving him with visible marks.

Cody's biological mother, who was separated from Posey at the time, reported the incident to authorities, but the case was closed after they determined it was isolated.

Sitting in the audience, relatives of Paul and Tryone Posey shook their heads as Cody described a man who would slap him off a chair, hold his head under water or knock his teeth out when they were loose.

Many of the alleged incidents related to the family's work on a ranch.

Cody accused his father of waking him up each morning with cold water in the face, kicks to the stomach and an electric cattle prod.

He recalled an incident in which his father threw him into a crowded cattle pen for failing to aggressively herd the pack.

Jurors appeared sympathetic to Cody's litany of tragedy, and nodded as the teen expressed his frustration with a man who seemed to take sadistic pleasure in punishing him.

"I wanted so bad to please him. I wanted to love him and I wanted him to love me back," said Cody, who did not betray an emotion even as audience members began to cry. "I'd seen families on TV and I'd talked to people about families and I wanted a family. I want to please everybody I could in order to make a family."

The closest he came to having a family was in 2000, he said, when he persuaded his father to allow him to live with his biological mother, who divorced Posey in 1992.

Posey signed an agreement disowning his son, and Cody went to live with his mother and his new stepfather.

"It was probably the greatest time of my life," said the teen, coming as close to tears as he did during all his testimony. "They didn't treat me like my father did. They treated me like a son ... I believe they loved me."

His happiness was short-lived, however, when on their way to begin a new life in Seattle, the family's car flipped over several times and his mother died on impact.

Paul Posey got his son back after a brief custody dispute. Cody said he did not see anyone from his biological mother's family until 2004, when he appeared in court on the murder charges.

Despite his father's promises that the beatings would stop after he returned, Cody said the situation only got worse, especially after they moved to the Donaldson ranch in 2001 where Posey took a job as ranch foreman.

Cody said his father's belt gave way to fists, rocks and shovels and that his third wife, Tryone, was a willing participant in the abuse.

They enlisted his stepsister, Marilea, to tell them about his wrongdoings at school in exchange for money, he said.

On the Donaldson ranch, Cody said, his father threw bales of hay and mineral blocks at him for not working fast enough.

His parents kept him in his bedroom, except to do chores.

"After school I went to room to stay there all night," Cody said, as his maternal aunt sat in the audience, dabbing tears. "They occasionally let me out to eat in the dining room."

His most painful memory, he said, was when, after a long day of working on the field, he thought he saw his father motion to him to hop on the tractor.

"As I ran up to the tractor, my father grabbed me by the collar and shoved me off," Cody testified. "It's kind of an all-American farm boy dream to ride on a tractor with your family, and I really wanted to do that. When I got pushed off, it really hurt me."

Cody's direct examination resumes Friday. The proceedings will be broadcast live on Court TV and streamed on Court TV Extra.