By the time the Amtrak practice rolled into Denver early on a September morning 9 years in the past, 28-year-old Marina Placensia was useless in automotive 510, seat 22.
Her boyfriend, Angelo Mantych, frantically alerted practice employees that she was unresponsive simply after the practice pulled into Union Station at 7:12 a.m. on Sept. 1, 2016. The practice’s assistant conductor, Joseph Benjamin, discovered Placensia slumped over in her seat, her bra above her breasts, not respiratory. She was heat to the contact, and she or he wasn’t stiff.
But when Benjamin carried out CPR, Placensia’s breath carried the unmistakable stale stench of demise, he testified Tuesday firstly of the jury trial for Mantych, who was charged together with his girlfriend’s homicide seven years after her demise.
The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner couldn’t decide Placensia’s reason behind demise — she had 35 separate accidents to her physique, together with cuts and bruises, which witnesses and relations attributed to longstanding bodily abuse from Mantych, now 43. None had been severe sufficient to trigger her demise. She had superior liver illness from alcohol abuse, however the medical expert couldn’t level to that as her reason behind demise both.
The case went chilly till 2023, when the lead detective left the Denver Police Department and joined the Denver District Attorney’s Office. He revived the investigation and despatched Placensia’s case to Bill Smock, a doctor with the Louisville Metro Police Department in Kentucky, who testified as an professional within the George Floyd case, for a re-evaluation.
Smock concluded she was smothered to demise.
Prosecutors consider Mantych silently asphyxiated his accomplice sooner or later throughout the evening at midnight practice automotive. Defense attorneys argued she died of pure causes. None of the passengers or employees within the practice automotive that evening noticed a confrontation between the couple, public defender Srinija Pernankil mentioned throughout opening statements Tuesday.
“Not a single witness… heard fighting, arguing, struggling,” she instructed jurors in Denver District Court. “You will not hear from a single witness who saw or heard a conflict.”
Even Placensia’s 4 kids, who had been with the couple on the practice, didn’t report a confrontation that evening, Pernankil mentioned. The prosecution’s professional witness, she mentioned, got here into the case years after the post-mortem, checked out some photographs and instructed prosecutors what they needed to listen to.
But Assistant District Attorney Lara Mullin mentioned Smock noticed what Denver’s post-mortem missed: telltale indicators of smothering. Investigators despatched Smock photographs of Placensia’s post-mortem, the post-mortem report, witness statements and scene images.
“What he saw immediately stood out,” Mullin mentioned. “Injuries to the oral and perioral area of her mouth. Hemorrhaging inside her lips. Bruising on her jawline and face. What did these injuries say to Dr. Smock? It suggested this: smothering.”
Smock is anticipated to testify throughout the jury trial.
Denver investigators documented years of home violence between Mantych and Placensia forward of the deadly practice journey in a 12-page affidavit. Witnesses described Mantych beating Placensia, slapping her, giving her black eyes. They remembered that she wore lengthy sleeves even in heat climate to cowl up the accidents.
Placensia was planning to go away him as soon as she arrived in Denver, one member of the family mentioned, in response to the affidavit. But Mantych had threatened to kill her if she ever tried.
Pernankil mentioned her shopper was “not a perfect father, not a perfect husband,” however that his previous home violence shouldn’t lead jurors to imagine he killed Placensia on the practice. Placensia suffered from extreme liver illness and coronary heart circumstances that, coupled along with her historical past of alcohol abuse, may have brought about her demise, Pernankil argued throughout opening statements.
Mantych instructed officers he tried to wake his girlfriend about 20 minutes earlier than they arrived in Denver, and assumed she was sleeping deeply when she didn’t stir. He mentioned he tried once more 10 minutes earlier than arrival after which sought assist when she nonetheless didn’t reply, in response to an affidavit.
Pernankil accused authorities of pursuing the case towards Mantych largely as a result of Placensia’s household regularly advocated for his arrest.
“They convinced themselves he must be the cause of Ms. Placensia’s death,” she instructed jurors. “…In the search for answers and the search for closure, the truth and the law should not be forgotten.”
The trial is scheduled to final by means of Dec. 15.
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