HILLSBORO — John Monk said he was aware of Paul Sanelle’s pointy fingernails, darkened apartment and garlic allergy. Sanelle might have eaten raw meat once, he said. But is he a vampire?

“I can’t say indisputably that he’s not,” Monk testified in Washington County Circuit Court. “But I’ve never seen him act on that if he was.”

For Monk’s 38 minutes on the witness stand Thursday during Sanelle’s trial, he held the room’s attention.

Sanelle is charged with one count of murder in the death of one of his girlfriends, Julianne Herinckx, who died April 29, 2012. Monk, a friend of Sanelle, testified for the defense that he never felt concerned for the safety of Sanelle’s girlfriends.

The men shared interests in many topics, Monk testified: herbs, martial arts, politics, government collapse, anticipated difficulties in society requiring food and weapons preparedness.

The bruises Monk saw on Herinckx and Sanelle’s other girlfriend, Terlin Patrick, didn’t bother him, Monk said. He said he knew they were from Sanelle’s defense training and sword fighting rituals. Plus, he said, Patrick bruised easily.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “With Terlin it was very common. You touch her and she bruises. I’ve even bruised her. I just grabbed her arm.”

Then, there was a question posed by attorneys for both sides: Is the defendant a vampire? He said he couldn’t be sure.

Monk, who is 30 years older than Sanelle, distinguished between “energy vampires,” which he said drain people’s energy and “blood vampires,” which drain blood.

“I know energy vampires when I see them,” he said. “But other than that, I have not seen a blood vampire.”

Some of his friends are energy vampires, Monk said.

“Energy vampires are more common,” he said. “I don’t have any figures on that, but I do know there’s a lot of them.”

Chief Deputy District Attorney Roger Hanlon asked if he had any idea of how many blood vampires there are in Washington County?

“No, I’ve not physically encountered one,” he said.

Do you have a friend who’s an elf? Hanlon asked.

“Oh, yes,” Monk said, referring to someone named “Badger,” who was described as tall and thin without pointy ears.

Everyone has a different reality, Monk said.

“Oh, I’m definitely in a different reality from the two of you,” he said referring to the attorneys. “One, I doubt that you guys believe in the other realms that exist because you’re lawyers. Most lawyers I’ve found only believe in what they can see and touch.”

Monk went on to talk about the powers that some people possess.

“I can teleport to realms,” he said. “Actually, it’s astral projection. You’re just moving your soul.”

Sanelle and Patrick told investigators that the bruises covering the bodies of Herinckx and Patrick came from defense training or sparring sessions. They varied in their descriptions of how aggressive those workouts were.

On cross-examination, prosecutors picked at the topic of those workouts.

Witnesses, other than Monk, testified Thursday that the workouts they saw Sanelle, Patrick and Herinckx engage in were not violent and did not cause obvious injuries.

Sanelle also told investigators that he taught his girlfriends to spar and release tension through combative exercise.

Forensic psychologist Megan McNeal testified that “anger catharsis,” the practice of beating a punching bag or something similar to release frustration, is not a recommended therapeutic practice.

Though that idea was popularized by Sigmund Freud and is still held by some, she said, research shows that the practice actually increases aggression.

Defense attorneys rested their case at the end of the day Thursday.