FORT PIERCE — Testimony began today in the murder trial of Albert Estrada, the 43-year-old man accused of murdering his wife before burying her in their back yard and lying to police as they searched for her.

Assistant State Attorney Steve Gosnell in opening arguments this morning gave the 14-member jury a timeline of the events before and after Wednesday, July 26, 2006, when friends and co-workers last heard from Julia Rolon-Estrada.

Nancy Paxton, her supervisor at a doctor’s office where she worked, later testified that Rolon-Estrada had been upset that day, crying and talking about breaking up with her husband that afternoon.

Paxton said she overheard a phone conversation between the couple that afternoon when Rolon-Estrada put the call on speaker. She said Estrada gave a chilling response when his wife said she wasn’t coming back home.

“He basically said, ‘You are coming back home. If you don’t I’m going to kill you and I’m going to kill your whole family. I’m going to kill your sister, your mother and your father,’” Paxton said.

By then, Gosnell told jurors this morning, Rolon-Estrada had left her house and was staying with her friend Stephanie Scardigno, who worked with her at her second job with a medical supply company.

Scardigno testified that Rolon-Estrada stayed with her that Tuesday night but never made to the her apartment the next day.

Rolon-Estrada’s co-workers and friends eventually called police, and Scardigno testified about the moment she ran into Estrada at the Port St. Lucie Police station that Friday, the day before authorities found his wife’s body.

“He smiled at me,” she said. “I was crying. I was a mess because my friend was missing. I thought it was strange that her husband smiled at me.”

Jurors Monday afternoon began hearing a recorded statement from Estrada, who told police his wife left him that week after they argued about her wanting to have more children.

Gosnell said they found Rolon-Estrada’s body buried in a shallow grave in their back yard.

Police also found signs of a struggle - bullet holes in the walls of the laundry room and traces of blood leading from the laundry room back to a roman tub in a bathroom.

Defense attorney Rusty Akins told jurors the fact that Rolon-Estrada was dead and had been buried outside the family’s home was undeniable, but said prosecutors would need more than that to prove a first-degree murder charge.

“It’s going to be natural for you to go through an emotional process in this case,” Akins said. “But you have to look at the facts.”

Akins didn’t tell jurors to find Estrada not guilty at the end of his argument, instead urging them to return a “reasonable and just verdict in the case.”

If convicted on first-degree murder charges, Estrada could face the death penalty.

Tags: Albert Estrada, Candice Estrada

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