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A man who walked into a Las Vegas church and confessed to shooting his estranged wife in August 2002 went to trial Tuesday on a murder charge.
Frank Marques faces a potential sentence of life in prison if convicted of murder in the slaying of Candace Weckhorst, 35. She was found shot multiple times in an alley in eastern Las Vegas.
During opening statements in the courtroom of District Judge Sally Loehrer, Clark County prosecutor Pam Weckerly portrayed Marques as a man obsessed with keeping his estranged wife from divorcing him.
When Weckhorst left Marques in 2002 following years of verbal abuse, Marques was insistent on knowing whether Weckhorst was going to date other men.
"It all depends," Weckerly quoted Weckhorst as saying to Marques. "That was an idea the defendant couldn't stand."
On the day of the killing, Marques set up a meeting with his estranged wife, and Weckhorst agreed to meet even though she had a restraining order against him. Weckhorst did so under the premise she was going to get some clothes back from the residence they shared.
Weckhorst, a mother of two young children, was later found shot in an alley near Charleston Boulevard and Mojave Road. The crime scene was behind a repair shop where Marques worked.
The following day, Weckerly said, Marques walked into Christ the King Catholic Church, 4925 S. Torrey Pines Drive, during mass.
"He interrupts the service and tells the priest he wants his blessing, that he's murdered his wife," Weckerly said.
During a subsequent interview with police, Marques said he decided to kill his wife when he learned she was considering dating other men, the prosecutor said.
"My blood started pumping ... right there, that's it. I'm taking her out. I'm going to shoot my wife," Weckerly quoted Marques as saying.
Weckhorst's sister, Lori Reid, testified Tuesday that her sister was gravely afraid of Marques. Reid said she and her husband would occasionally see Marques parked in a car down the street from Reid's house, and Marques once left a message on her answering machine threatening to kill her entire family.
Another witness, Erik Alexander, said he and his wife allowed Weckhorst into their home to hide from Marques in the days prior to the killing. Alexander said Marques showed up at the residence about a week before the slaying demanding to see Weckhorst. Alexander would not let Marques in.
The next day, Alexander found all the tires on his car had been slashed.
Defense attorney Curtis Brown of the Clark County Public Defender's Office told the jury that Marques did, in fact, shoot Weckhorst. In an apparent bid to secure a conviction on lesser charges, such as manslaughter, Brown said his client is extremely remorseful and that the shooting happened while Marques was on an "emotional roller coaster."
"This case is about why," Brown said. "It's about emotion."