Defense lawyer: Ex-Marine accused of killing pregnant colleague in NC did not plan slaying

Lawyer says ex-Marine client did not plan slaying

GOLDSBORO, N.C. — An attorney for a former Marine accused of killing his pregnant colleague portrayed the slaying Thursday as an impulsive act caused by the victim’s lies but still challenged prosecutors to prove his client committed the crime.

“We’re not trying at all to minimize her death, but it is vitally important to know all the circumstances,” Dick McNeil, lawyer for Cesar Laurean, told jurors in his opening statement. “Life is not generally black and white. There’s a lot of gray. And that’s what there is in this case.”

Laurean, 23, is charged with killing Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, of Vandalia, Ohio, and burning her body in a firepit behind his home in December 2007. He has pleaded not guilty and faces life in prison if convicted.

McNeil told that prosecutors must prove Laurean killed Lauterbach after she surprised him at his home. The victim had previously accused Laurean of raping and impregnating her.

District Attorney Dewey Hudson challenged McNeil’s characterization of Lauterbach as an immature woman with a history of theft and lies who was under increased pressure from a mother who wanted her to give up her child for adoption.

“This is a murder case. How is it possibly relevant whether she’s stolen things or lied?” Hudson asked after Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III ordered jurors out of the courtroom.

McNeil said the first-degree murder charge required prosecutors to prove Laurean planned the slaying and said months of earlier provocation resulting from Lauterbach’s rape allegation ought to be presented to jurors.

The judge allowed McNeil to raise the possibility for jurors that the killing resulted from a sudden, angry impulse.

McNeil in his opening statements also said Laurean’s wife was home when Lauterbach was killed, but he did not implicate her in a crime.

“Who killed her is what the state has to prove,” along with the circumstances of that event, McNeil said.

Hudson told jurors he plans to show DNA evidence of Lauterbach’s blood found in Laurean’s garage and on a crowbar Laurean gave away to a neighbor. The prosecutor said an autopsy showed that Lauterbach died from a blow to the left side of her head, and that a neck wound caused only minor injury.

Hours before Lauterbach’s remains were discovered in January 2008, Laurean fled to Mexico. He a note for his wife saying he had been arguing with Lauterbach before she pulled out a knife and slit her own throat.

Laurean and Lauterbach were personnel clerks when she told officials he raped her. She later recanted a claim that he impregnated her, and DNA tests later revealed Laurean was not the father. Lauterbach was about eight months pregnant when she died.

Lauterbach had earlier bought a bus ticket to Texas and left a note for her roommate saying she could no longer live the life of a Marine.

That roommate, Marine Sgt. Daniel Durham, was the first witness called. He said he found the note after returning home the afternoon Lauterbach disappeared. Durham said he tried to call Lauterbach but couldn’t reach her and decided to wait to see if she returned by Monday before reporting her disappearance.

Authorities were searching for Lauterbach when Laurean’s wife turned over the note he had written. Investigators removed cinderblocks from what appeared to be a firepit in the backyard and found a corpse buried about 2 feet below, said State Bureau of Investigation Agent Hiram “Chip” Coble, a crime scene search specialist.

Laurean bought the cinderblock two days after Lauterbach was last seen alive, Hudson said.

Coble also described photos showing a body that was burned and decomposed.

Lauterbach’s mother, Mary, wept soundlessly, dabbing her nose and tears from her cheek. Laurean, clad in a dress shirt and tie, retained an attentive but subdued demeanor. Three generations of his family sat on benches behind him.

The body’s discovery prompted an international manhunt that ended when Laurean was arrested in April 2008 in western Mexico.

Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty so Mexico would return Laurean to the U.S.

The trial was moved about 55 miles from Jacksonville — where the two Marines were based at Camp Lejeune — to Goldsboro because of heavy publicity surrounding the case.