Defense: Alleged Killer Acted in Drunken Rage

A Murrieta man who allegedly killed his girlfriend and burned her body in Temecula acted in a drunken rage, his defense attorney said today.

Melvin Louis Shaw, 44, was accused of killing his girlfriend, Elisa Marie Lopez, 41, in her home, dumping her body in a dumpster behind a gym and setting it on fire. If convicted, he faces 25 years to life.

The body was discovered at 12:23 a.m. on July 21, 2007, when the Riverside County Fire Department got a call reporting the blaze behind in the 27000 block of Winchester Road, said Murrieta Police Lt. Dennis Vrooman.

She was killed July 20, though how this happened is unknown, said prosecutor Sean Crandell after the arrest.

An autopsy mystified investigators because she showed no sign of internal or external trauma, defense attorney Erin Kirkpatrick said during today’s hearing. “They were unable to establish the cause of death,” she said.

A night of hard drinking lead to the killing, Kirkpatrick told a jury of 12 women and three men.

That night was the couple’s date night, but Shaw was drinking at Texas Loosey’s in Temecula because the restaurant was hosting a lingerie show, according to Todd Coones, one of his friends who testified today.

Shaw then moved to Texas Lil’s in Old Town and kept drinking, and then to Hard Hats Sports Grill to continue drinking. “Melvin had been drinking all day,” Kirkpatrick said.

When he got to his girlfriend’s home, where he was living, she got upset because he was too drunk to go on their date. “She was mad at him because he ruined date night,” the defense attorney said.

The last thing Shaw remembers was arguing with his girlfriend, Kirkpatrick said.

The night of the killing, Shaw talked to a friend, Burno Zvirzin, on the phone and made plans to meet for a double date that weekend, Zvirzin testified today. Whether the call was before or after Lopez's death was unclear.

The couple had a happy relationship, Zvirzin said. “We used to joke they were in puppy love,” he said about the couple.

Shaw rarely got angry when he was drunk, Zvirzin said. “We always labeled him a chatty Cathy. He’d talk to anybody or anything,” he said. “He gets a little more giddy.”

Shaw has post-traumatic stress disorder, Kirkpatrick said, and at least once while drunk he burst out in a violent fit, Coones testified.

The friend was driving Shaw home from a trip, and he was drunk and sleeping in the passenger seat. Suddenly, he woke up, started screaming and tried to jump out of the speeding car. Coones stopped him, so Shaw started punching the car’s window, Coones testified. “He started screaming, ‘I got to get out of here, I got to get out of here,’” Coones recalled.

Shaw was arrested for robbery in 1999, Smith said. He was also arrested for assaulting somebody in the bathroom of the Pechanga Resort and Casino with two friends, he said.

The trial will continue Wednesday, and the jury is expected to begin deliberation on Thursday, according to Judge Albert Wojcik.