Jurors in the trial of Francesca Pagliasotti — accused of participating in a gruesome plot to conceal the murder of a 16-year-old — will have to decide whether she was a coldhearted accomplice or a battered woman afraid to disobey her boyfriend.
Alicia Martinez’s father held a tissue to his eyes and slowly shook his head during opening arguments Wednesday as prosecutors described Pagliasotti’s help in the effort to cut the teen’s body into pieces that could be flushed down a toilet.
They allege Pagliasotti returned home Oct. 22, 2010, to find alleged killer Edward Timothy Romero, the father of her two children, had shot the teen, but did nothing to alert police. Instead, she handed him cutting implements and held open the garbage bags Alicia would later be found in, prosecutors said.
“Once she was told, that’s when this heartless, cowardly and grotesque coverup begins,” prosecutor Henry Cooper told jurors. “She doesn’t do anything (to alert authorities) because she doesn’t want him to be caught.”
But the defense plans to argue that years of brutal abuse at Romero’s hands made her afraid to disobey him. Her attorneys recounted incidents where Romero allegedly knifed Pagliasotti in the back, struck her in the ankles with a metal bat and choked her before sexually assaulting her.
“She was trapped in a situation under duress,” defense attorney Craig Mastro told jurors. “She was merely trying to survive this situation.”
Police found Alicia’s remains in plastic bins stashed in Romero’s basement. She had attended a small gathering in Romero’s garage, which was decked out with a bar, a stripper pole and stereo gear.
Manuel Gonzales, who was there for the October 2010 party, described leaving Alicia alone with Romero, 27, so he could “get with homegirl.”
About 45 minutes later, Romero emerged from the garage and confessed to shooting her, Gonzales testified.
Romero has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but has been found competent to stand trial, scheduled to begin June 19.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
