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LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A retrial has begun in Las Vegas for man charged in the bludgeoning death of a Utah tourist who authorities say went to one of the city's roughest neighborhoods to buy drugs.
28-year-old Shod Walker is accused of killing former model Simone Hirst in April 2003 outside a low-budget downtown motel.
His first trial ended in a mistrial after a juror reported going home and using a rock and coconut to simulate the bludgeoning that prosecutors say killed Hirst.
Hirst was from Park City, Utah, and once worked for a modeling agency in Paris.
She was celebrating her 39th birthday at a Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino when she fought with her boyfriend and took a taxi downtown.
Police said she wanted to buy crack.
Prosecutors say Walker confessed to a heroin addict that he killed Hirst -- and later gave conflicting statements to Las Vegas police.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
