Friend testifies ex-Marine gave him crowbar

GOLDSBORO, N.C. -- The yellow crowbar that dropped with a thud on a courtroom table Monday still had a dried blood droplet that led a man to suspect that a former friend who gave it to him used the tool to kill a pregnant fellow Marine.

Dennis Ward testified at the first-degree murder trial of Cesar Laurean, 23, of Las Vegas. Laurean was expelled from the Marines after being charged with killing Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, of Vandalia, Ohio, who had accused Laurean of rape. He has pleaded not guilty and faces life in prison if convicted.

Ward said Laurean, a fellow corporal stationed at Camp Lejeune, gave him the crowbar two days after Lauterbach disappeared in December 2007.

Laurean didn't offer it to Ward until the two wrapped up a shopping excursion where Laurean bought a dishwasher and concrete blocks for a backyard firepit, Ward said. Laurean began digging the firepit as soon as they returned from the store, Ward said.

After news reports the following month that Lauterbach's body was unearthed from under the firepit, Ward said he grew more suspicious about what appeared to be a dried blood drop on a sticker affixed to the crowbar.

Lauterbach died from a blow to the head, and a DNA sample taken from a crowbar was her blood, District Attorney Dewey Hudson said last week.

Prosecutors are trying to weave together details -- including computer records, investigator testimony, DNA tests, and spattered blood -- into a series of facts that point to Laurean as the killer.