Trial starts for man accused in wife's death

Jurors in the murder trial of Clarence Elliot are being asked to piece together bits of circumstantial evidence that prosecutors say point to his guilt on charges of murdering his wife in February 1996.

Barbara Turner-Elliot disappeared after she got off work at University Medical Center and went shopping at the Lucky store at Rainbow Boulevard and Flamingo Road.

Her body was found three months later in a ravine off West Charleston Boulevard, near the Red Rock detention basin. She had been shot four times.

The jury in District Judge Jeff Sobel's courtroom heard testimony from six witnesses on the first day of trial Monday. The jury should be handed the case for deliberations before the end of the week.

Elliot, 59, was arrested on the murder charges in August 1996 as he was driving away from the home he had shared with his late wife in the 7500 block of Holloran Court, near Buffalo Drive and Smoke Ranch Road.

A neighbor had spotted Elliot at the house earlier that evening and notified police. Elliot was moving possessions out of the house, which had been recently sold.

Prosecutors said the victim's keys were in Elliot's possession and a bullet matching the bullets that killed Turner-Elliot was found in her car, along with DNA evidence indicating that is where she had been killed.

The defendant and the victim had married on June 30, 1995.

archive