People who knew Carmin Ross say she never got nosebleeds, a prosecutor said Monday.

But when detectives questioned her ex-husband, Kansas State University professor Thomas E. Murray, after Ross was stabbed to death in November 2003, he told them they’d find her blood in his car because she’d borrowed it shortly before her death and had a nosebleed.

That statement is part of the case prosecutors began making against Murray on Monday, the first day of what’s expected to be a weeklong preliminary hearing in Douglas County District Court.

Murray, a 48-year-old linguistics scholar, is charged with first-degree murder in Ross’ death Nov. 13, 2003, at her home northwest of Lawrence on East 1150 Road. He is being held in the Douglas County Jail in lieu of $750,000 bond.

If there’s a single damning piece of physical evidence, a confession or an eyewitness to the killing, no one has said so publicly.

Circumstantial evidence

Instead, the case outlined Monday relies heavily on circumstantial evidence, including Murray’s alibi and his statements and actions before and after the death.

In an opening statement to Judge Robert Fairchild, prosecutor Thomas Bath summarized the state’s case as follows:

l Evidence showed there was no forced entry to the home, nothing stolen, no ransacking and no sexual assault. It appears the 40-year-old Ross was attacked in the middle of her home.

“There was nothing indicating that a stranger forced his way into the house,” said Bath, a private prosecutor hired by Ross’ parents as a way to smooth the transition when Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney leaves office next month.

Attorneys, from left, Pedro Irigonegary and Bob eye confer before a preliminary hearing for their client, Thomas E. Murray, right. Murray is charged with the 2003 murder of his ex-wife, Carmin Ross. The hearing was Monday.

The killer apparently took time to clean up, suggesting it was someone who knew Ross’ routine and knew no one else was coming to the home, he said.

l After Ross’ body was discovered by sheriff’s deputies the next day, police began surveillance of Murray’s home in Manhattan and saw him pacing and looking out his window repeatedly. When detectives eventually told Murray that Ross had died, he never asked how she died, Bath said.

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l Murray told detectives he’d dropped off the couple’s 4-year-old daughter at a baby sitter’s at 8:45 a.m. the day of the slaying. A baby sitter said it was closer to 8:15 a.m. or 8:20 a.m.

“He had never dropped Ciara off that early before,” Bath said.

l Murray told police he went back to his home that morning to grade tests and said he didn’t leave. After detectives pressed him, he said he left home, drove on Interstate 70 and went to Paxico to shop for antiques.

When detectives asked for the names of people he contacted in Paxico, he said he’d not actually gone to Paxico but had turned around, Bath said.

l Murray had injuries on his hands and fingers. He told detectives he’d suffered the injuries while roughhousing with his daughter. Bath said evidence would show Ciara didn’t like to roughhouse.

“She liked to play house with dolls,” Bath said.

l A search of computer evidence showed that before the slaying, Murray researched subjects including colorless, odorless poisons, how to kill someone quickly and what countries do not extradite to the United States, Bath said.

Fiance’s testimony

Ross and Murray divorced in June 2003 after 18 years of marriage and were in a child-custody dispute at the time of the death. Bath said that two days before she was slain, Ross told Murray she planned to move to California to be with her new love interest and planned to fight Murray for custody of their daughter.

The first witness called in Monday’s hearing was Ross’ fiance, Larry Lima, of San Diego, who testified he talked with Ross by telephone into the early-morning hours of Nov. 13, and later grew concerned and asked police to check on her when he couldn’t contact her.

Lima described meeting Ross in fall 2002 in Wichita while both were attending a workshop for an alternative-healing technique called “Consegrity.” When Lima described the technique as a spiritual process to help people connect with God, Murray’s attorney, Pedro Irigonegaray of Topeka, asked “Which God?”

After Fairchild overruled an objection by Assistant Dist. Atty. Angela Wilson, Lima answered, “It’s the God that exists in all of us.”

Irigonegaray also raised a series of objections from Wilson by asking when was the first time Lima and Ross had sex.

Prosecutor Wilson asked Lima where he was the night of the slaying. He said he was in California and could document that he had a CAT scan that day. She asked, “Did you kill Carmin Ross?” He answered, “No.”

Other witnesses included mediator Nancy Hughes, who described both Murray and Ross as “quite calm” at all their encounters with her during their child custody dispute.

Coroner Erik Mitchell testified he couldn’t say exactly what kind of instrument caused Ross’ 13 stab wounds or the roughly 15 lacerations about her head. He said it appeared Ross moved throughout the room during the killing and was alive long enough to inhale blood. He said it appeared the killer at one point held Ross’ torso while stabbing her repeatedly in the upper chest and neck.

The main purpose of the hearing is for prosecutors to show there’s enough evidence for Murray to stand trial for the murder. Testimony was to continue this morning.