Olathe ? Tyler Block Patton was a greedy “trophy wife” who beat her husband to death with a chunk of wood as he slept, prosecutors told Johnson County jurors this week as the woman’s murder trial began.

But Patton’s defense attorney, Charles Rogers, suggested someone else killed Edward Patton Jr. His body was found on Jan. 16, 2001 in his bed at the couple’s home. They had been married less than a year.

Prosecutors said in court Monday that Patton’s wife ransacked the house to make it appear that an intruder killed her husband. She is charged with first-degree murder.

A 2-foot section of a 2-by-4 board that the state believes was used in the beating was left in plain site in the home. Edward Patton’s blood coated one end of the board. On the other end of the board was a small sample of DNA matching that of his 51-year-old wife.

“How to get to the money is what this case is all about,” said Rick Guinn, assistant district attorney, who said Tyler Block Patton married for money.

Guinn called Edward Patton a “whipped pup” who was miserable in his marriage but who still desperately wanted to make his wife happy.

Rogers raised the possibility of another killer, an acquaintance of Edward Patton who seemed to know details of the crime before they were publicized.

Rogers also downplayed the significance of samples of Tyler Patton’s DNA on the board, saying the fact that fingerprints weren’t found on many items that had been moved in the house suggested that the killer wore gloves.

Rogers added that it was not surprising that Tyler Patton’s DNA was on the wood, because she had taken it to the house and used it in a remodeling project.

Jurors also would learn, Rogers said, that Tyler Patton suffered from a medical condition that would have made it “extremely painful” to bludgeon her husband to death.