The Latest: Credibility of key witness attacked at trial

The Latest on the trial of a Phoenix man charged with killing two people whose bodies were later found buried in his mother’s backyard (all times local):

2:30 p.m.

A lawyer for an Arizona man charged with killing two people and burying their bodies in his mother’s backyard attacked the credibility of her client’s girlfriend because she was given a lenient prison sentence for her role in the deaths.

Attorney Maria Schaffer told jurors Monday that the only evidence linking Alan Mathew Champagne to the two 2011 killings came from his girlfriend, Elise Garcia.

Garcia was sentenced to 16 years in prison last fall after pleading guilty to murder in the death of one of the victims, Brandi Hoffner, and is expected to testify at Champagne’s trial.

Authorities say the 46-year-old Champagne killed Hoffner and Philmon Tapaha at his apartment in July 2011, put their bodies in a plywood box and buried it a half-mile away at his mother’s home.

1:45 p.m.

The trial of an Arizona man charged with killing two people and burying their bodies in his mother’s backyard opened with a prosecutor describing the strangulation death of one of the victims.

Jurors at Alan Champagne’s trial were told in opening statements Monday that he used a wrench to crank up tension on an electrical cable that was wrapped around Brandi Hoffner’s neck.

Prosecutor Ellen Dahl says Hoffner was forced to smoke methamphetamine moments after witnessing the 46-year-old Champagne shoot her boyfriend.

The bodies were found 20 months later buried in a plywood box outside a home where Champagne’s mother once lived.

Champagne pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the 2011 deaths. His attorneys are scheduled to make opening statements later Monday afternoon.

9 a.m.

Lawyers are scheduled to make opening statements Monday at the trial of a Phoenix man charged with killing two people whose bodies were later found buried in his mother’s backyard.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against 46-year-old Alan Mathew Champagne in the 2011 deaths of Philmon Tapaha and Brandi Nicole Hoffner.

Champagne has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Investigators say Champagne fatally shot Tapaha and choked Hoffner to death at his apartment, put their bodies in the box, poured in lime to help with decomposition and buried it a half-mile away at his mother’s home.

The big break in the case came in March 2013 when a landscaper at a home where Champagne’s mother used to live had discovered the buried bodies.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.