Day 3 in the murder trial for Lisa Dykes continued on Thursday with the testimony from a Dallas Police detective and the girlfriend of Charles Beltran, one of the three people accused of killing Marisela Botello.
Dykes is one of three people accused of killing Botello, a 23-year-old Seattle woman who went missing in Dallas in October 2020.
According to an arrest warrant obtained by NBC 5, Dallas police said Botello had flown to Dallas from Seattle to visit a friend. Botello's family said she was last seen leaving a Deep Ellum bar early on Oct. 5, 2020. Her body was found nearly six months later, on March 24, 2021, in a wooded area in Wilmer.
Dykes was indicted in June 2021 by a Dallas County grand jury along with Nina Tamar Marano and Charles Anthony Beltran, who was a person of interest in the case early on. Marano and Dykes were arrested in Florida and Beltran was taken into custody in Utah.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
Dykes's trial was originally expected to begin in January 2023 but was delayed after Judge Amber Givens was recused after the prosecution claimed she displayed bias toward them.
The trials for Marano and Beltran are scheduled for Feb. 20, 2024, and April 15, 2024, respectively.
DAY 3 OF THE TRIAL
On day three of the trial, Dallas Police Detective Stephen Prince was the first witness called up. Prosecutors asked Prince about surveillance video the family of Botello was able to obtain early in the investigation.
"This is the back of the Punk Society ... Those cameras are covering the back of the building," Prince said. "There is two different videos taken from the same camera ... There is two individuals walking."
In the video, a man wearing a red shirt and a woman wearing a dark-colored dress is seen walking toward the parking lot. Another video at a nearby gas station located at Gaston and Haskell shows Botello and Beltran.
“I believe they enter at around 1:25 a.m.,” Prince said.
According to an affidavit, investigators said mobile phone records placed Botello at Dykes home in Mesquite. Phone records also showed Dykes and Marano traveling south of Dallas, near Hutchins, to a densely wooded area near a concrete plant.
On Oct. 15, investigators visited the home to look for Beltran however, they were only able to speak to Dykes over the phone.
“In that conversation did Ms. Dykes indicate that she had any idea about Mr. Beltran's whereabouts,” prosecutors asked.
“No,” Prince said. Prince said Dykes claimed she had not had contact with Beltran for several weeks.
Detectives would later obtain a list of phone logs between Dykes and Beltran and their locations after Botello's disappearance.
One of Beltran's girlfriends, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear, was also called up as a witness on Thursday.
She told the court she met Beltran at a club and was dating him for several months. According to the woman, they had plans to meet on the night of Oct. 4. She said she did not hear from Beltran until the next day.
During the days that followed, the woman said Beltran acted normal. The only change, she said, was that Beltran insisted on staying at hotels.
“He told me if I wanted to go on vacation to New Orleans,” the woman said.
The pair traveled to New Orleans in a white SUV. However, she said they only spent one night there. The woman said Beltran stepped away to answer a call however, noticed his demeanor changed.
“I asked him what’s going on,” the woman said. “He just said I need you to go back to Dallas.”
The woman was instructed to drive back in the SUV and drop it off outside the Mesquite home. She said she later made her way back to Louisiana to pick up Beltran.
Beltran and the woman would drive to Pennsylvania.
“I asked him again. I'm like, ‘Hey what’s going on’. He kind of got mad,” the woman said. “He raised his voice at me. He had never done that. He said, ‘Stop questioning me’.”
“When he raised his voice, were you afraid he was going to do something violent to you,” prosecutors asked the woman. “At that moment? Yes. He had never talked to me like that,” the woman said.
Beltran alleged his lawyers were going to pick him up in Pennsylvania. According to the woman, Beltran had previously mentioned his lawyers were Lisa Dykes and Nina Marano however never disclosed their romantic relationship.
Earlier this week, testimony revealed Beltran, Dykes, and Marano were part of a love triangle.
Testimony continued Thursday afternoon from a former roommate of Dykes and additional investigators on the case.
