A murder trial is getting under way for a registered sex offender accused of murdering an aspiring dancer from Texas whose body was found in Pennsylvania more than a year after she went missing in New York.
Jury selection is set to begin Monday in Orange County Court in the murder trial of Michael Mele of Wallkill.
The victim, Laura Garza, met Mele at a Manhattan nightclub in December 2008 and disappeared afterward. Her body was found in April 2010 near Scranton, Pa.
Garza had moved to Brooklyn from McAllen, Texas, five months before her disappearance.
Mele has several sex-offense convictions in New York, most involving lewd conduct in front of women or girls.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
