The county coroner testified that Linda Begay, 37, died from an abdominal infection days after she suffered blunt trauma to the abdomen.

But the attorney for her boyfriend, Christopher Belone, 35, the man accused of beating her to death, said prosecutors have not presented enough evidence to even put Belone at the scene.

“They don’t have that one witness or physical evidence to show that my client did these things. They don’t have it. It’s just not there,” Greg Robinson said Friday in a motions hearing in anticipation of Belone’s upcoming preliminary hearing.

Douglas County Assistant Dist. Atty. Eve Kemple said prosecutors have shown through investigator statements and medical testimony that it’s likely that Belone caused Begay’s death, which has made her not available to testify.

Douglas County District Court Judge Jack Murphy is considering whether to allow prosecutors to introduce as evidence Begay’s audio-taped statements that she made to Lawrence Police while she was in the hospital.

The two sides offered witnesses and argued in court Friday over the issue of the tape.

Murphy heard the tape of Begay’s interview during a Sept. 9 hearing. On the recording, when asked who dragged her from a bed and beat her, Begay said, “I don’t know … Chris, or whatever.”

She also said he struck her in the stomach with a two-by-four and that she believed Belone was jealous because she passed out in a male friend’s trailer.

Police had recorded the interview with Begay 4 1/2 hours after the incident, because in an earlier interview she was highly intoxicated.

Belone is charged with killing Begay by punching her and striking her in the midsection with a wooden object July 29 at Gaslight Village mobile home park, 1900 W. 31st St. She died three days later.

If prosecutors can show the judge by “a preponderance of the evidence” – a standard that means more likely than not – that Belone is the one who caused Begay to be unavailable as a witness, the out-of-court statements can be used, rather than considered hearsay.

Robinson said investigators did not look at all possible suspects in the case. He has also said that evidence would show more people were in the trailer with Begay before her death and that someone else may have had motive to hurt her.

Robinson argued that Begay’s statements on the tape were also conflicting as far as putting someone else in the trailer during the alleged attack, and he questioned her state of mind because she was intoxicated.

“Not one person has put Mr. Belone there except for those hearsay statements,” he said.

Dr. Ryan Davis, of Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s emergency room, and Dr. Erik Mitchell, the Douglas County coroner, testified Friday for the state.

Mitchell said Begay died from peritonitis, an infection in the abdomen, after blunt trauma had damaged her bowels.

During cross-examination, Robinson asked Mitchell whether the autopsy could identify the object that caused the blow.

“I would not be able to tell you what instrument was involved,” Mitchell said.

Murphy said he would rule on the motion sometime before Tuesday’s preliminary hearing.