Girl was witness, teen says

A relative in the Jane "Cordova" Doe murder trial testified Tuesday that a girl who reportedly saw the slaying told her: "If you saw what I saw, you would have screamed."

Amy Ruiz, 17, who is a cousin of defendant Marc Anthony Colon, testified Colon's 12-year-old daughter said that to her when asked what happened the night Crystal Figueroa, aka Jane "Cordova" Doe, died in January 2006.

The 12-year-old, Maxine Colon, gave conflicting statements Monday when she said her father never hit Crystal. Ruiz was called by prosecutors as a rebuttal witness.

Ruiz said that Colon told her that if he were caught, it would be the fault of his co-defendant, Gladys Perez. Perez is Crystal's mother and had been dating Colon for several months before Crystal died.

Colon, 30, and Perez, 26, are accused of killing Crystal in Las Vegas and leaving her body in a trash bin at the Villa Cordova Apartments on Eastern Avenue near Sahara Avenue. Colon's two daughters and Perez's other daughter were with them.

After Crystal's body was left in the trash bin, the couple moved to Oregon and then Minnesota with their remaining children in tow. They were arrested about six weeks after Crystal's body was found.

District Judge Michelle Leavitt on Tuesday kicked a woman out of the courtroom after she spoke with two witnesses outside the courtroom. The woman said she was a distant relative of Colon.

The woman spoke to Sarah Jensen, Colon's sister, who testified briefly Tuesday.

The woman told Leavitt she discussed testimony from a Walgreen clerk who said he saw Perez with a bruise on her face the night Crystal was killed.

According to a marshal who relayed the information to Leavitt, the woman told Jensen: "What bitch in Las Vegas doesn't walk around in Las Vegas with a black eye?"