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November 26, 2009

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Trial begins in slain prostitute case

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2000 | 10:53 a.m.

The trial of a Las Vegas man who was found naked under a sheet of plastic with a dead prostitute earlier this year began this morning with jury selection.

Metro Police say Ronald Collins, 30, slashed Agnes Ready's throat while they were sitting in his pickup truck 5 feet from his front door on Castle Cove Drive, near U.S. 95 and Alexander Road.

Collins' wife, Melanie, called police at 4:30 a.m. after she reportedly came home to find her husband in her kitchen underneath the plastic with Ready's naked and bloody body.

Melanie Collins, who has attended all of her husband's court hearings but who will not be allowed to attend his trial, has invoked her spousal privilege not to testify.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane, however, won the right to use her 911 call to police and a brief written statement.

In one of her statements, Melanie Collins told police that when she screamed upon entering her kitchen, her husband came out and chased after her, telling her that it wasn't what she thought.

Melanie Collins told police that after speaking to him for awhile in her car, Ronald Collins went back into the house to clean up the kitchen and she called 911.

On the 911 tape, an obviously frightened Melanie Collins tells the dispatcher about the body and then says, "I have to go because my husband will see me." She then hangs up abruptly.

Deputy Special Public Defender Joe Sciscento convinced District Judge Joseph Bonaventure that another, lengthier statement, taken later that morning, should not be admitted as evidence.

It is in that statement that Melanie Collins told police that she had left her home the evening before because her husband was drunk and she wanted to avoid a confrontation.

Sciscento is expected to call at least one mental health expert to testify about Collins' state of mind at the time of the incident.

Collins asked Bonaventure Monday to delay the trial and replace Sciscento, saying he hadn't visited him enough or done enough investigation. Bonaventure denied his motion, however.

The trial is expected to last through Thursday.

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