During day three of a murder trial in Douglas County District Court, the defense accused one of the state’s witnesses of committing the crime.

Christopher Belone is on trial for the murder of his longtime girlfriend, 37-year-old Linda Begay, in July at the Gaslight Village mobile home park.

But Wednesday afternoon, Belone’s attorney, Greg Robinson, turned his sights on Frank Mallonee, the man whose trailer was the scene of the bloody attack on Begay.

Mallonee testified that he and Begay had been drinking alcohol together. He admitted he was intoxicated and didn’t remember some events of that day.

“You don’t remember going back to your trailer and beating Linda?” Robinson asked on cross-examination. “You beat her because she didn’t want to have sex with you.”

Mallonee denied having anything to do with the attack.

And prosecutors contend Belone was jealous after finding his live-in girlfriend of seven years in Mallonee’s bed. They say Belone beat her so severely that she died two days later.

During morning testimony, Douglas County Coroner Erik Mitchell talked jurors through autopsy photos of Begay, and he reiterated his earlier testimony that she died of peritonitis, an infection caused by blunt trauma to the abdomen.

Assistant Douglas County District Attorney Trent Krug placed a furniture leg in front of Mitchell and asked if it could have caused Begay’s fatal injury.

“It could have done it,” Mitchell said. During cross-examination, Mitchell said his examination could not determine a specific instrument.

“All we can say is this is an injury caused by an instrument, but it could even be a fist,” he said.

Belone’s attorney pressed Mitchell about whether Begay could have crashed her bicycle and been struck in the stomach and injured by a handlebar because she had told a friend she fell from her bicycle.

“I would say that’s not going to happen with this bicycle,” Mitchell said after he looked at a photo of Belone’s bicycle.

Testimony in the case resumes this morning.