LA CROSSE, WI (WTAQ) - A jury in La Crosse is hearing its second day of testimony in the drug-related murder trial of Izelia Golatt.
Tuesday, medical examiner Vincent Tranchida testified that the victim – 35-year-old Kristen Tabbert Rodgers – was strangled in early March.
But the defense says Rodgers was choked during rough sex the previous day, and she actually died from a cocaine overdose and exposure to 30 degree temperatures.
She was found dead in a dirt lot by a scrap collector. Golatt’s attorney plans to call a forensic pathologist Thursday who plans to refute the medical examiner’s findings.
Prosecutors said Rodgers and the 45-year-old Golatt traded dozens of text messages in the hours before her death, as she was searching for crack cocaine.
Rodgers and Golatt were seen together in his van a short time before she died.



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