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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A trial is under way for a man charged in the death of his fiancee at their Salt Lake County trailer home.
Prosecutors told a 3rd District Court jury on Monday that Billy Justin Charles beat and asphyxiated 18-year-old Jamie Ellen Weiss, then staged her death to look like an accidental drowning.
Defense attorneys say someone else must have killed Weiss after Charles, now 32, left for work on Aug. 7, 1996.
Weiss died the day before the couple planned to marry.
Charles was arrested in November 2007 and charged with first-degree felony murder. Prosecutors have said new witnesses came forward in the case two years ago.
The trial is expected to last four days.
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
