EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) -- An attorney for a southwestern Illinois man says his client argued with a woman police say was beaten to death. But James Stern insists to jurors that Scott Moore didn't kill her.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Stern made that claim Tuesday in opening Moore's first-degree murder trial in Madison County in the 2009 death of 54-year-old Catherine Fowler.
Authorities say Fowler was fatally beaten with a baseball bat in her Granite City apartment. Her body was found after her purse was discovered outside, near the building.
Thirty-four-year-old Moore also charged with armed robbery and home invasion.
A prosecutor, Neil Schroeder, told jurors a witness saw Moore going through Fowler's purse and tossing it in a trash bin. Schroeder also says blood and DNA evidence would implicate Moore.
Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
