Trial Begins For Woman Accused In Connection With The Alicia Martinez Murder

DENVER (CBS4) - The first of two trials in the brutal killing of a 16-year-old girl will begin this week. The first is the trial of the girlfriend of the alleged killer.

Police say Francesca Pagliasotti helped clean up the crime scene and is an accessory to the murder of Alicia Martinez.

"It's important to us as a family to come together," Alicia Martinez's cousin Katrina Flores said.

Alicia Martinez's family has waited more than a year to make the walk into a Denver courtroom.

"She had a bright future; straight A student in school," brother Mike Martinez said.

Alicia Martinez was just 16 years old when she was brutally killed. Prosecutors say her friend's mother, Jacquelyn Perea, took Alicia to a party off Decatur Street in Denver and gave her marijuana. Perea left Alicia at the party.

The teen's dismembered body was found several days later in Edward Romero's garage. He's charged with the murder.

"We want to know why? Why all this happened. That's the biggest question we have. What made it turn out the way it did?" Mike Martinez said.

Some of those painful answers will surface when Romero's girlfriend's trial begins this week. Police say Pagliasotti cleaned up the crime scene and lied to police to protect her boyfriend.

According to the autopsy, Alicia Martinez was shot twice in the head and her body was cut apart after she was dead.

The family says they want justice and peace for the teen who was barely beginning life.

"That she gets peace; that she rest in peace, because I know she's not right now. Not until she gets justice and we as a family can heal because she is so missed," Flores said.

Romero's trial will begin in June.