ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – It's a murder trial involving nearly a half-dozen mistresses, a botched investigation at a troubled police department and a missing pickup truck at the heart of the case.After a month of testimony, the trial of a former Albuquerque police officer accused of killing his wife with his service weapon has become a tale of workplace romances and steamy affairs, including a love triangle at the hair salon where the victim worked. In all, four mistresses and a woman who married defendant Levi Chavez just after his wife's death have testified about their trysts with him. Several of the women were police officers.
The case also has threatened to further tarnish the reputation of the beleaguered Albuquerque Police Department, which already is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department over a series of police shootings. The trial included allegations that officers at the scene removed and even flushed key evidence down the toilet.
Chavez, 32, is accused of shooting his 26-year-old wife, Tera Chavez, with his department-issued gun in 2007 at their Los Lunas home and then trying to make her death look like a suicide.
Prosecutors have depicted Chavez as a philanderer whose marriage was crumbling, and say he killed his wife after she found out that he had staged the theft of his pickup truck valued at more than $20,000 to collect the insurance proceeds.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/10/nm-murder-trial-former-police-officer-packed-with-stories-affairs-cover-up/#ixzz2YeJ4MgDl
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