The defense lawyer for 28-year-old Stephen Brown, accused of the vicious 2017 stabbing and beating death of a 51-year-old teaching assistant and kidnapping both her and her young daughter at a North Shore vacation rental, began his opening statement with an explosive quote Monday morning as the highly anticipated trial got underway.

“Hailey, what the f— did you do?” William Bagasol, Brown’s court-appointed attorney, said, attributing those words to his client after discovering the woman’s body in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor.

He told jurors it was Brown’s ex-girlfriend, Hailey Dandurand, then 20, and not Brown who killed Telma Boinville, but said his client is taking responsibility for burglarizing the rental and kidnapping the mother and 8-year-old Makana Boinville Emery.

On Dec. 7, 2017, Boinville’s body was found downstairs in the Pupukea house, where she worked on occasion as a part-time house cleaner, while her daughter was discovered alive upstairs, with her hands and feet bound and her mouth taped.

“You will hear evidence of what happened to Telma Boinville, but there is no proof that he did the killing,” Bagasol said. “No one was present to observe the killing,” and there is no fingerprint or DNA evidence as to who may have touched whatever implement was used in this case.

Dandurand, who has alleged she was the victim of domestic abuse at the hands of Brown, will be tried separately for second-degree murder and the two kidnappings, along with other crimes related to the case.

Bagasol said the pair were a young couple in love for several months, and Brown was enamored with her. They had been camping at the beach when she discovered the empty rental and told Brown about it. The pair broke in through an upstairs window and began looking for things to steal or use. Brown made breakfast and found a liquor cabinet.

“Telma surprised them,” Bagasol said. “Hailey told Brown to keep her from leaving, but he just wanted to take their stuff and go.”

But Dandurand told Brown to check out the house. He discovered Emery in the truck. When he went back to Dandurand, he saw blood everywhere and confronted her and asked her, “What did you do?” according to Bagasol.

Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell told jurors Boinville, a Brazilian native and educational assistant at Sunset Elementary School, brought her daughter with her after school to the beachfront house at 59-553 Ke Iki Road, which she occasionally cleaned.

They arrived in the family’s gold four-door pickup truck, and Emery sat in the back seat watching a movie while her mother went into the house, Bell said.

Bell said Brown carried her inside the house and told her, “We killed your mom.”

He took the girl upstairs and tied her hands and feet to the foot of the bed, and covered her mouth with packing tape.

At 3 p.m. an Australian man who rented the house arrived with his friend and saw the truck and the door open and entered. He heard two sets of footsteps upstairs, found the body lying facedown in a pool of blood and quickly retreated to call 911, Bell said.

Emery later described to her father that “a boy with green hair and a girl with pinkish and reddish hair” were responsible for what happened, Bell said.

Emery’s father put that information out on social media and soon got a photo of the couple, whom she immediately recognized, Bell said.

In the courtroom, Brown no longer sported the curly green hair he did at 23. Instead, his brown hair was pulled back in a bun, and he wore a white shirt and a light-colored plaid jacket with tan pants.

He lowered his head when photos of Boinville’s bloody body, her head covered with a plastic bag, were shown during an evidence specialist’s testimony.

Bell described Boinville’s sharp and blunt force injuries, and chop wounds cleaving into the bone, causing fractures, her wrists and ankles bound with cord, her hands and arms stabbed with defensive wounds, cuts to her face, head injuries, including brain injury, and stab wounds to her throat.

He presented photos taken by a police evidence specialist as well as the actual items, including a bloody kitchen knife, folding pocketknife and machete. A hammer and metal meat-­tenderizing instrument were lying in blood next to her body. The defense noted that a baseball bat, entered into evidence, had no blood or DNA on it.

Tips led police to Mililani Town Center, where the truck and the pair were found and arrested.

Bell said Brown told police, “You should have killed me,” and, “Just kill me already.”

Brown was taken to the police station with a brief stop at the hospital. Police tried to cover with paper and tape his hands and arms, which were covered with a bloodlike substance, Bell said. He tore off the paper and “began to lick the blood off,” he said.

Brown’s shorts and shoes were stained with a bloodlike substance, and keys to the pickup were found in the police car he was transported in, Bell said.

His fingerprints and DNA were found on a variety of items.

Bell said Dandurand was found wearing Boinville’s shell earrings that her husband had made. She also had the 51-year-old’s debit card in her pocket and Emery’s purple backpack.