Opening Statements In Trial Of Man Accused Of Staging Crash
DENVER (CBS4) - Opening statements were held Tuesday in the trial of an Iraq veteran charged with killing his girlfriend who was an Air Force veteran.
Robert Walters, 25, is accused of killing Brittney Brashers. She was 22 years old when she was killed last fall.
Walter's lawyer says Brashers died in a car accident. Prosecutors say he staged the car accident to cover up her death.
A 911 tape was played in court. Walters could be heard screaming the background. One of the witnesses testified that he was screaming Brashers' name over and over again and was shaking.
Attorneys then interviewed the police officers and firefighters who were first on scene. Some of their testimony mentioned that Brashers' injuries were not consistent with what one officer described as a moderate accident.
Defense attorneys told jurors that Brashers died in the car accident and the coroners' report won't prove she died beforehand from other injuries. They said Walters, who was also in the car during the accident, was drunk and asleep at the time and doesn't know how it happened.
Walters later told his estranged wife that he murdered Brashers and faked the accident to cover it up. She recorded the conversations. The defense team said Walters made up the conversations to try to get his wife to leave him alone because he didn't love her anymore.
Walters also faces a solicitation to commit first-degree murder charge for allegedly trying to hire an inmate he met in jail to kill his wife. The defense said that inmate lied to set Walters up and strike a deal of his own to get out of jail early.
There was a history of domestic violence between Walters and Brashers. Voice messages were playing in court where Walters can be heard saying he wanted to kill Brashers. There was another one where Walters said he was going to cause her to be in a car accident. Attorney's said that was just "Robbie being Robbie." They said he said those types of things often and really wouldn't go through with it.
The case is expected to last about two weeks.
