Trial begins for man in ex-girlfriend’s death

Tuesday, June 17, 2003 | 9:18 a.m.

Opening arguments began Monday in the case of a Las Vegas man charged with strangling his former live-in girlfriend with a telephone cord and dumping her body in a trash bin.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane told jurors Christopher Duncan was seen carrying what looked like a body toward a trash bin near Fourth Street and Charleston Boulevard.

Eighteen-year-old Shalynn Hatter's body was found in the bin with a telephone cord wrapped around her neck. Duncan faces a single count of murder with a deadly weapon in the January slaying.

Kane told jurors that Duncan confessed the crime to his current girlfriend, who is expected to testify at the trial. He said fingerprint evidence also links Duncan to the crime.

But Deputy Special Public Defender Alzora Jackson maintained her client's innocence. She said Duncan did move Hatter's body, but that he wasn't her killer.

Jackson said Hatter, who also went by the name Candy, was a known prostitute and drug user who had methamphetamine in her system at the time of the slaying.

Testimony in the case is expected to continue this morning before District Judge Joseph Bonaventure.