Opening statements begin in trial of former Marine accused of killing pregnant colleague in NC

Opening statements begin in ex-Marine’s trial

GOLDSBORO, N.C. — The North Carolina attorney for a former Marine accused of killing a pregnant colleague says the victim’s trouble telling the truth may have so angered the defendant he couldn’t have premeditated a killing.

Attorneys for both sides delivered opening statements Thursday in the murder trial of Cesar Laurean.

Laurean is charged with killing 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach of Vandalia, Ohio, and burning her body in a firepit in the backyard of his home in December 2007. He has pleaded not guilty.

Defense attorney Dick McNeil told jurors that prosecutors have to prove Laurean killed Lauterbach after she made a surprise visit to his home. McNeil said Laurean’s wife was also home at the time.

“Life is not generally black and white. There’s a lot of gray. And that’s what there is in this case,” McNeil told jurors.

McNeil said Lauterbach had lied about Laurean raping and impregnating her. Laurean was never charged with rape.

District Attorney Dewey Hudson told jurors investigators found Lauterbach’s blood in Laurean’s garage.

The trial was moved about 55 miles from Jacksonville, home of Camp Lejeune, to Goldsboro due to extensive pretrial publicity.

Laurean and Lauterbach were personnel clerks when she told officials that 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.

Authorities had been searching for Lauterbach after she disappeared when Laurean’s wife turned over a note in which Laurean claimed Lauterbach had slit her own throat. That prompted an international manhunt for him that ended when he was arrested in April 2008 in western Mexico and extradited last year.

Prosecutors have agreed not to seek the death penalty so Mexico would return Laurean to the U.S. He faces life in prison if convicted.