La Plata, MD – A Charles County Circuit Court jury heard two different stories as the state and defense made opening arguments in the first-degree murder trial of Isa Manuel Santiago, 40 of Oxon Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 15.

Santiago was convicted in 2006 for second-degree murder of 26-year-old LaToya Taylor, whose body was found in trash bags in a field off Route 301 in Newburg in 2003.

The defendant’s conviction was overturned in 2008 on what some in the state’s attorney’s office consider the minutest of technicalities—that the judge did not “hearken the jury” after they had rendered their verdict in predawn hours.

After Charles County Circuit Court Judge Amy J. Bragunier gave the jury instructions, Charles County Deputy State’s Attorney Karen Piper-Mitchell detailed how Isa Santiago had a volatile relationship with Taylor, mother of a 1-year-old child between them at the time of her death.

Piper-Mitchell said Taylor had plans to meet her co-workers for lunch June 13, 2003 but had to rush out.

She told the jury they would see a video of the victim walking out of the IRS Building at the Federal Triangle in Washington, DC and getting into the defendant’s black Jeep.

“That is the last known sighting of LaToya Taylor,” Piper-Mitchell said. “She never went back to work. She never went to get her car. She never picked up her kids.”

Taylor’s body was found by a police officer in a field near Newburg, she added, noting that the Jeep was later found set on fire in Washington, DC.

“The defendant reported it as stolen,” Piper-Mitchell said.

Stan Fisher, one of a team of four lawyers defending Santiago, told a totally different version of events than presented by the state.

“On June 13, 2003, Isa Santiago had just gotten off work at Walter Reed,” Fisher said. “Around 4:30 he went to an ATM and got money for the weekend. He visited with friends and later he met up with the manager of a club.

“Isa Santiago did not murder LaToya Taylor,” he told the jury. “He did not pick her up. He did not dump her body in Newburg. It’s not Isa’s car. He wasn’t there. It doesn’t follow that he wanted to kill the mother of one of his children.”

Fisher asserted that vital evidence was overlooked by investigators. He said tire tracks where the body was dumped did not match his client’s vehicle. Vehicle carpet fibers found with the body did not match fibers from Santiago’s Jeep.

“There is no match, because Isa wasn’t there,” he said. “There is no blood, no fingerprint evidence, no hair, no DNA, no trash bags like the ones used to put the victim’s body in anywhere in Isa’s possession. There is no physical evidence linking him to this crime.”

Santiago’s 2003 Jeep, he stated, was stolen about a year before the murder.

“The case against Isa simply doesn’t show up,” Fisher concluded.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.

Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com