Brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal couldn’t read or write. They couldn’t process complicated situations. Loud noises scared them.

Dan Stein, at age 71, was soon to get hearing aids, and getting up and down was so difficult that he was never able to play with his 7-month-old grandson on the floor.

At age 84, Bernice Simon had had two knees and a hip replaced. She couldn’t walk without a cane. Her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86, had macular degeneration and complained about chronic pain in his neck and back.

Joyce Fienberg, 75, had nerve issues in her arm that caused numbness, and she couldn’t sit for long periods. Mel Wax, 87, was completely deaf in one ear and had only 50% hearing in the other. At 97, Rose Mallinger couldn’t climb steps, had neuropathy in her feet and needed a walker to get around her home.

One after the other, the loved ones of eight of the 11 victims killed in a Squirrel Hill synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, took the stand Monday to tell the jury what it was that made them vulnerable under the law.

Monday was the first day of the eligibility phase in the federal case against Robert Bowers, who was found guilty this month of all 63 counts against him for the attack at the synagogue that housed the Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light congregations. The three additional victims who were killed were Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Irving Younger, 69; and Richard Gottfried, 65.

The government is seeking the death penalty.

Prosecutors called eight witnesses Monday in this first part of the sentencing proceedings. They must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bowers, 50, of Baldwin and his actions that day meet the requirements to be subject to possible capital punishment.

The government must prove intent and at least one of four aggravating factors, including that he created a grave risk of death to 12 additional people; that the crime involved substantial planning and premeditation; that those killed were considered “vulnerable victims” because of their age and intellectual disabilities; and that there were multiple killings.

The government spent most of its time Monday on the vulnerability of the victims.

The defense will begin its case Tuesday. During opening statements Monday morning, and for the first time during the trial, the defense gave specific, concrete examples of why they believe jurors should find that Bowers did not act with a level of intent sufficient for the death penalty to be considered.

Citing imaging done on Bowers’ brain — including an MRI, a PET scan and an EEG — defense attorney Michael Burt told the jury during his opening that his client’s brain is structurally abnormal. Scans showed Bowers had “irregularities” in 22 of 70 brain regions a doctor researched, Burt said.

“There is abnormality in Mr. Bowers’ brain,” he said. “What’s the effect of those abnormalities on the defendant’s thinking?”

As a preview, Burt said his client has an odd manner, thought disorder, delusions and a psychotic condition that he’s had since childhood.

The defendant, Burt continued, has tried to commit suicide multiple times and been institutionalized. Results from neurological and psychiatric testing are consistent with schizophrenia and epilepsy, the attorney said.

That brain dysfunction, Burt said, makes it impossible for Bowers to assess stimuli, and he has an inability to perceive the world around him. He can’t make proper decisions, the attorney said.

All of that, Burt told the jury, means Bowers should spend his life in prison with no chance for release.

“How did this man, with no criminal history, pick up these weapons and shoot innocent victims?” Burt said. “It’s a question the defense has been investigating since getting this case.”

He told the jurors that they should expect to hear extensive expert testimony on his client’s mental health during the eligibility phase.

“We hope this is going to bring some understanding to you why this horrible act happened,” Burt said.

In the government’s opening, Assistant U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti reminded jurors of the “sheer magnitude” of the attack, which Bowers’ own defense attorneys called “inexcusable” and “incomprehensible.”

Bowers showed “sufficient intent” to plan the killing of 11 innocent people during their weekly worship, as well as attacking law enforcement who tried to save the congregants.

Citing the vulnerability of the victims, Rivetti talked about their ages — many of them were older than 70 — and the intellectual and developmental disabilities of the Rosenthal brothers.

Bowers consciously and methodically planned to go on a killing spree at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, then worked to cover up the trail of evidence, Rivetti said.

“He kept shooting,” he said. “He came to kill. He was filled with hate. … He pulled the trigger again and again and again.”

Following opening statements, the government’s first witness was Diane Rosenthal, who spent about 20 minutes on the witness stand talking about her brothers, Cecil, 59, and David, 54.

“Worship at Tree of Life was extremely important to them,” she testified. “They loved going there. They felt comfortable there. The people knew them. They weren’t judged.

“That was their safe place.”

Diane Rosenthal described “the boys,” as they were affectionately known, as having the mental capacity of preschoolers.

They could tie their shoes, she said, but the laces would be so loose that they would become untied almost immediately. They couldn’t process complicated situations.

Both of her brothers, Diane Rosenthal testified, carried Fragile X syndrome, leading to intellectual disability.

Although doctors recommended to their parents that the boys be raised in an institution, they remained at home with their two sisters.

As they aged, routine became important.

Diane Rosenthal said they could dress themselves, although Cecil often would miss four or five belt loops, and he hated shaving.

They were both very social.

When her brothers were killed, they lived in an Achieva group home in Squirrel Hill that was constantly staffed, Diane Rosenthal said. They had jobs through Achieva, with Cecil working as a mail carrier between office locations. It took months of riding Port Authority buses with members of the staff before he could do it himself, his sister said.

David, who was a very neat, organized and particular person, worked cleaning office buildings.

“ ‘I clean toilets,’ ” David would tell people when they asked about his job. “He really loved what he did.”

Cecil talked incessantly, his sister said.

“He loved to talk, and if he wasn’t talking, he was mumbling,” she said.

He welcomed strangers and was excited to meet them.

Because he was overweight and flat-footed, his sister said, Cecil couldn’t run.

Loud noises made him flail his arms.

David wasn’t as trusting in a social setting, his sister said, but once he was comfortable, he always asked people about their loved ones.

He wanted to be a regular guy, and wore sunglasses and a watch even though he couldn’t tell time.

“He was a lot of fun,” Diane Rosenthal said.

David could run, but he was easy to confuse.

“Typically, he would panic and freeze if he was alone in a stressful situation,” she said.

During the guilt phase of the trial, Audrey Glickman, 66, a member of Tree of Life congregation, testified that she had just finished her role in the opening part of the service with David Rosenthal when she heard the shooting.

Glickman grabbed him to help him escape up the stairs behind them, but David Rosenthal was upset, saying he wanted to go home.

“We had him up a couple steps, and he ran back into the chapel,” she told the jury.

His body was found in the lobby.

Following Diane Rosenthal’s testimony, the government called several children of the victims identified in the indictment as vulnerable.

Howard Fienberg told the jury his mother, Joyce, spent five years caring for his father before the man died from cancer, and that she also took care of her mother and mother-in-law.

He said his mother never complained but didn’t prioritize her own medical needs until they became serious.

Stanley Mallinger, who lived with his mother for at least the last 10 years of her life, told the jury that she wore hearing aids and had glaucoma. The oldest of the victims killed, Rose Mallinger had fallen in her home several times and could no longer go out by herself.

Jodi Kart, Wax’s daughter, said she spoke with her father every day on the phone, although because of his hearing, the conversations were difficult.

Her father, a veteran, wore basic hearing aids, but Kart said they weren’t as good as they could have been, and Wax struggled hearing soft sounds or whispers.

Stein’s son, Joseph Stein, told the jury that his dad father started snoring and used a CPAP machine when he slept and was likely to need hearing aids in the near future.

Michelle Weis told the jury about both of her parents. Her father, Sylvan Simon, had macular degeneration in one of his eyes, required hip-replacement surgery, and had neck and back problems.

Her mother, Bernice Simon, had been living with chronic injuries. She fell on a senior-center vacation trip around summer 2016, requiring knee replacement surgery on both knees and a left-hip replacement, Weis said. She confirmed her mother relied on a cane when walking.

“She had a hard time getting around,” Weis said, “(but) my mother never complained.”

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