Day 1 in the murder trial for Lisa Dykes began on Tuesday.
Dykes is one of three people accused of killing Marisela Botello, a 23-year-old Seattle woman who went missing in Dallas in October 2020.
According to an arrest warrant obtained by NBC 5, Dallas police said Botello had flown to Dallas from Seattle to visit a friend. Botello's family said she was last seen leaving a Deep Ellum bar early on Oct. 5, 2020. Her body was found nearly six months later, on March 24, 2021, in a wooded area in Wilmer.
Dykes was indicted in June 2021 by a Dallas County grand jury along with Nina Tamar Marano and Charles Anthony 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.
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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.
The trials for Marano and Beltran are scheduled for Feb. 20, 2024, and April 15, 2024, respectively.
DAY 1 OF THE TRIAL
Marisela Botello’s mother, Ernestina Valadez Frutos was the first to take the stand Tuesday morning. She told the jury it was out of character for Botello to not update her on her whereabouts. The family, she said, clung to hope for months that she would be found alive.
“When I received the DNA results was when I realized my daughter was no longer alive,” Valadez Frutos said. “I got a call. They told me they found remains in a trash bag.”
Botello had flown to Dallas from Seattle to visit Raul Ortiz. The two had a previous romantic relationship but remained friends. He testified Tuesday, telling the jury they separated outside of his apartment on Oct. 4 after a full day of eating and drinking.
"I had vomit on my shirt because I was drunk, and we went to my apartment," Ortiz said. "I didn't have the keys to my apartment, and my roommate was long gone. I told her I wasn't going to go out. So, she got an Uber and went to Deep Ellum."
During opening arguments on Tuesday morning, State prosecutor, Robin Pittman explained an alleged love triangle between the defendant, Lisa Dykes, Nina Marano, and Charles Beltran.
“Lisa Dykes could provide him with a life he had never lived before. She started taking him to fancy dinners,” Pittman said. “She would provide for him, and what he provided for her would be some type of companionship.”
Dykes supported Beltran’s rap career. Marano would later move in with Dykes and Beltran.
“Just months after the death of Nina’s husband, Lisa Dykes and Nina Marano get married. They understood, though, that Charles Beltran would be part of this relationship,” Pittman said.
The trio is charged in connection to the death of Marisela Botello. According to state prosecutors, Beltran claimed Botello was attacked by Dykes while they slept.
“You’re going to hear about how Lisa Dykes, in the early hours of Oct. 5, entered that room, Charles Beltran's bedroom,” Pittman said. “And got on top of Miss Botello-Valadez and stabbed her. She was asleep. As was Charles.”
Dykes’ attorney, Heath Harris said their evidence will show that is not the case.
“The evidence in that room is not consistent with someone having stab wounds,” Harris said. “Charles Beltran cannot be trusted ... What I do know, they will not be able to prove Ms. Dykes committed this offense, because she did not.”
Investigators said mobile phone records placed Botello at the same home as Dykes, an affidavit stated. Phone records also showed Dykes and Marano traveling south of Dallas, near Hutchins, to a densely wooded area near a concrete plant.
When officials searched their residence, they found streaks of brown and red on the carpet, which had been cleaned. An analysis of DNA found on one of the carpets matched Botello's blood, according to the affidavit.
In December 2020, New York State Police searched a black 2014 Audi that had previously been registered to Dykes and Beltran and had been transported to the state. They also found concrete material that matched the type and color that was being used at the concrete plant, where Dykes and Marano are thought to have traveled, the affidavit stated.
