(9/26/12) A jury in La Crosse is hearing its second day of testimony in the drug-related murder trial of Izelia Golatt.
Yesterday, medical examiner Vincent Tranchida testified that the victim – 35-year-old Kristen Tabbert Rodgers – was strangled in early March. But the defense says Rodgers was choked during rough sex the previous day, and she actually died from a cocaine overdose and exposure to 30-degree temperatures. She was found dead in a dirt lot by a scrap collector. Golatt's attorney plans to call a forensic pathologist tomorrow who plans to refute the medical examiner's findings. Prosecutors said Rodgers and the 45-year-old Golatt traded dozens of text messages in the hours before her death, as she was searching for crack cocaine. Rodgers and Golatt were seen together in his van a short time before she died.
