Trial ends with murder conviction for Belone

Jurors found Christopher Belone guilty on all charges today in the July death of Linda Begay.The convictions, including second-degree murder and kidnapping, could carry a sentence of up to 48 years, officials said. Sentencing will be in May.During closing arguments Tuesday morning in Belone’s second-degree murder trial, prosecutors stressed a recorded interview with Linda Begay days before she died when she said Belone had beaten her up.But Belone’s defense attorney again criticized investigators for looking only at Belone, and he said they did not thoroughly examine evidence in the bedroom where Begay had fallen asleep drunk on July 29 in the trailer of Frank Mallonee at the Gaslight Village mobile home park, 1900 W. 31st St.Prosecutors accuse Belone of hitting Begay in the stomach with a coffee table leg during a fit of jealousy when he found her in Mallonee’s trailer. The trial was in its seventh day this morning as jurors began deliberating at 10:40 a.m.Belone faces charges of second-degree murder, kidnapping, violating a protective order and obstructing the investigation. He testified Monday that he found Begay while he was looking for Mallonee and that he tried to help her get dressed when she attacked him. He said during the struggle when he pried the table leg from her it struck Begay in the nose.After things calmed down, Belone said he became angry with Begay when she jumped out of his truck as he tried to drive her home, so he left the trailer park. He was arrested hours later.”The only consistent statement you have before you are Linda Begay’s,” assistant Douglas County District Attorney Trent Krug said. “She told you on July 29 that she was taken (away) in a brutal fashion from (the trailer.)” Another friend took Begay to Lawrence Memorial Hospital; she was later transferred to Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center in Topeka where she died days later of an abdominal infection that medical investigators have said was caused by blunt trauma.Belone’s attorney Greg Robinson has said throughout the trial that Mallonee had motive to hurt Begay because she did not accept his sexual advances and that investigators failed to collect evidence from the bedroom that could have made him a suspect. Because it was originally investigated as a battery case, the scene had been released and cleaned up until investigators returned after Begay died days later, Robinson told jurors. He also said all forensic experts who testified only discovered Begay’s DNA at the scene on evidence that was tested.”Not one of them pointed at Christopher Belone and said he did anything,” Robinson said.