“What happened to Daniel Yakovleff was unworldly,” a senior Suffolk homicide prosecutor told a Superior Court jury today in the beloved hairstylist’s alleged killer’s murder trial. “It was beyond contemplation.”

Assistant District Attorney Mark Lee, deputy chief of the Suffolk DA’s Homicide Unit, said he could not explain why STEVEN ODEGARD (D.O.B. 8/5/67) allegedly stabbed Yakovleff more than a dozen times, killing him, but that overwhelming evidence showed that he did.

Boston Police found Yakovleff, 20, in Odegard’s bed on the morning of Jan. 17, 2008. He had been stabbed repeatedly with Odegard’s foot-long chef’s knife – a knife that was still plunged into his chest when authorities arrived. After 11 months of investigation, Odegard was indicted and charged with first-degree murder on Dec. 14 of the same year.

“This case isn’t about forensics,” Lee said. “It isn’t about the investigation. It’s about a man who gave a two-hour statement trying to explain what happened … [in which] every meaningful descriptor was wrong.”

In his initial statements to Boston Police, Lee said, Odegard said he met Yakovleff and an unidentified third man at a South End bar and brought them back to his Dorchester home. In that first statement to a responding officer, Lee recalled, Odegard said that “the three of us started to fool around.”

In a subsequent statement to homicide detectives, Lee said, the defendant’s account changed.

“By the end of the statement, it goes to me and Yakovleff fooling around,” the prosecutor said. “Because he knows they aren’t going to find any DNA.”

Lee recounted the level of detail Odegard included in statements about himself, Yakovleff, and their conversations, “But when it comes to the mystery man? Nothing. He can tell you everything about Dan Yakovleff, and nothing about the third man.”

Recalling the defendant’s statement that he was awoken at about 6:00 on Jan. 17 by the sound of a door slamming, he noted the improbability that a stranger could retrieve a knife from Odegard’s kitchen sink, bring it to the bedroom and slaughter the victim, remove any trace that he had been there, and then slam the door on his way out.

“He goes to all that trouble to be quiet,” Lee said, “only to slam the door?”

Moreover, Lee asked, “Why does the guy who kills Daniel Yakovleff in the defendant’s bed leave alive the only witness who could identify him? Dan Yakovleff wasn’t stabbed once or hit with a stick – he was stabbed upwards of 15 times. Do you think a person who does that would hesitate to kill another person?”

No fingerprints, DNA, hair, or other trace evidence suggests the presence of a third person at the defendant’s home in those early morning hours, Lee said.

After hearing closing arguments, jurors were instructed on the law by Judge Regina Quinlan. If they do not return a verdict today, they will retire for the weekend and resume deliberations on Monday.

Odegard is represented by attorney John Swomley. Paula Connor is the district attorney’s victim-witness advocate on the case.