Day 4 in the murder trial for Lisa Dykes, one of three people accused of killing 23-year-old Marisela Botello, continues Friday.
According to an arrest warrant obtained by NBC 5, Dallas police said Botello, 23, had flown to Dallas from Seattle to visit a friend in October 2020. Botello's family said she was last seen leaving a Deep Ellum bar on Oct. 5, 2020. Her body was found about six months later in a wooded area near Wilmer.
Three people, Lisa Dykes, Nina Marano and Charles Beltran were originally charged with murder in Botello's death. Dykes was indicted in June 2021 by a Dallas County grand jury along with Marano and Beltran, who was a person of interest in the case early on. Marano and Dykes were arrested in Florida and Beltran was taken into custody in Utah.
On Friday, the murder charge against Marano was dropped while the charge against her for tampering with a corpse remains. Her trial is still scheduled to begin on Feb. 20, 2024.
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The trial for Beltran is scheduled to begin April 15, 2024. He took the stand on Day 4 of the trial, detail on his testimony is below.
Dykes's trial was originally expected to begin in January 2023 but was delayed after Judge Amber Givens was recused after the prosecution claimed she displayed bias toward them.
DAY 4 OF THE TRIAL
Charles Beltran, one of the individuals facing murder charges in Botello's death, took the stand shortly before 10 a.m. on Friday and testified most of the day.
Marisela Botello’s mother could not bear to hear one more agonizing detail of her daughter’s final moments of life and left the courtroom in tears.
Charles Beltran chose to take the stand to recall what he claims happened to the 23-year-old woman from Seattle he met in Deep Ellum and invited back to his home.
Beltran testified that he woke up and saw his jealous lover Lisa Dykes appearing to fatally stab Botello after finding her in his bed.
“I wake up to her screaming ‘Help me, help me’ and I look up and just from all the movement I see Lisa on top of her,” he said. “[Lisa’s] like with a knife coming down like this.”
The aspiring rapper testified for several hours, admitting to living off of and engaging in a sexual tryst with Dykes, who was the mother of his boss, as well as Dykes’ wife Nina Marano.
“I was their boy toy,” he said.
Dykes, he says, funded his career and insisted he move in with her in Mesquite.
She then suggested inviting Marano into their sexual relationship and he agreed, but after a while said he began to notice Dykes becoming more possessive.
The 34-year-old told jurors he would bring home other women, despite Dykes asking him not to.
He said that is what happened with Marisela Botello in October 2020 after a chance encounter in Deep Ellum.
Beltran says he was with a friend at their usual hangout spots when Botello walked by him and smiled.
They eventually started up a conversation in which Beltran says she asked his friend and him where she could get weed.
Beltran says she ended up at his home after drinking and smoking weed and had consensual sex.
The two fell asleep despite Botello set to fly back home to Seattle in the morning.
During the attack, a startled Beltran says he tried to pull Dykes off of Botello and both women fell to the floor.
He claims he pinned Dykes’ to the wall asking what she was doing.
“She’s like: I told you not to bring more girls over here. I’m getting tired of this [expletive,]” said Beltran.
He claims he went into the bathroom to wash his face, came back out and told Dykes he was leaving and that she would have to handle the situation.
He said he left, and while stunned, went about his day getting his oil changed and hooking up with another woman.
In the days he was not at home, Beltran says Dykes enlisted Marano to dispose of Botello’s body and clean up the scene before asking that he return.
Beltran also described panicking when police released surveillance video image of a man appearing to be him with the missing woman.
He admits he left Dallas and drove to several cities with the help of Dykes.
The three suspects eventually fled the state and country before being caught.
Beltran says he managed to obtain a passport with the help of Marano, who was an attorney, saying she paid to clear back child support he owed in the thousands of dollars.
Dykes’ defense attorney Heath Harris challenged Beltran’s every claim, getting Beltran to admit he lied several times about what happened the night Botello disappeared.
Harris alluded to the possibility of other people, not already charged, involved in the gruesome murder.
He got Beltran to admit being told his capital murder charge would be dropped so long as he testified truthfully in Dykes’ trial.
The prosecutor asked Beltran why he did not call 911 if he did not murder Botello and was simply a witness to the horrific crime.
Beltran, who has a criminal record, said he feared he would be blamed for a crime he did not commit.
“They’re attorneys, they have good jobs,” he said of the two other defendants in the case. “Me, I look like a bad guy. I was scared.”
If convicted of murder, Dykes faces up to life in prison.
Beltran and Marano are set to face their own murder trials next year.
Shortly before 4 p.m., the trial concluded for the day and will resume at about 9:30 a.m. Monday.
This story will be updated with details of the fourth day of the trial as the trial progresses on Friday.
