The defense team of homicide suspect Donthe Lucas, who stands accused of the first-degree murder of Kelsie Schelling, was expected to begin presenting its case Monday but instead rested without calling witnesses or presenting additional evidence.
The jury began deliberating Monday morning. The Chieftain will be in the courtroom when a verdict is announced.
Schelling was 21 years old when she drove from her home in Denver to Pueblo to see Lucas on Feb. 4, 2013. She has not been seen or heard from since, and her remains have never been found.
After the defense rested its case, Deputy District Attorney Michelle Chostner outlined the prosecution’s case, which took 13 days to present to the jury before the prosecution rested on Friday.
A Feb. 12, 2013, interview conducted by then-Pueblo Police Det. Neal Robinson with present-day murder trial defendant Donthe Lucas was presented during the first half of Thursday s court proceedings.
The interview was conducted at the request of the Denver Police Department, which was searching for 21-year-old Kelsie Schelling. Her friends and family informed law enforcement at the time Schelling was living on her own in a Denver penthouse her father owned, and was pregnant.
The 2013 interviews contain Lucas allegations of Schelling s visit to Pueblo
Although portions of the video s sounds were muffled or at times difficult to discern to the courtroom audience, an almost 30-minute interview was shown from a Feb. 12, 2013 interview, which consisted of Lucas testimony of Schelling s alleged pregnancy, relationship to him and what they did together during her visit to Pueblo.
For more than eight years, people in Pueblo have pondered a macabre question: What possibly could have happened to Kelsie Schelling?
The 21-year-old Denver woman, who was eight weeks pregnant at the time, disappeared in Pueblo on Feb. 4, 2013, after a late-night drive to the Home of Heroes to visit her boyfriend, Donthe Lucas.
Schelling has not been seen or heard from since, and her remains have never been found.
But the question of what happened to Schelling, as well as who could have orchestrated her disappearance, recently came one step closer to being answered – at least in terms of Lucas’ involvement.
It’s been just shy of eight years since pregnant, 21-year-old Kelsie Schelling disappeared in Pueblo after driving from her home in Denver to visit her boyfriend and purported father of her unborn child, Donthe Lucas.
Members of Schelling’s family made a similar drive down Interstate 25 to see Lucas Wednesday as he stood trial for Schelling’s murder.
Schelling’s mother, Laura Saxton, has awaited this day for years she’s long alleged that Lucas was either involved in or responsible for her daughter’s disappearance. She and Schelling’s father, Doug Schelling, even filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Lucas and members of his family in 2016 that was later dismissed.