Before departure at Dallas International Airport, the same name echoed over the loudspeaker again and again. Marisella Batello Valadez. The 23-year-old woman was supposed to board a flight home to Seattle, but she never showed up at the gate. Her seat on the plane remained empty.
A few days later, investigators obtained surveillance footage. The video showed Marisella walking through the Deep Ellum nightlife district alongside a man she had only just met. Then, she got into his black Audi. At first, it did not look like an abduction. Security cameras captured them together inside a store. Marisella was smiling.
She moved freely through the aisles. Nothing suggested that she was in danger. But after that night, no one ever saw her again. Her phone went silent. Her bank card stopped being used. No messages, no calls. When police identified the owner of the Audi and obtained a search warrant for his home, the case took a dramatic turn.
In a bedroom, investigators found traces of blood that had been carefully cleaned away. The crime lab confirmed who it belonged to, Marisella Batello Valadez. But that was only the beginning because there was not just one person living in that house. And before long, the three adult residents suddenly vanished, leaving behind an abandoned home, strange evidence, and questions no one could answer.
The biggest question was a simple one. What exactly happened in that bedroom on the night Marisella was last seen alive? Hey guys, let me grab you for just a second. I’m really curious where my audience is watching from. So, I’d love for you to drop a comment and tell me what city you’re in and what time it is for you right now.
Thanks for taking a moment. Go ahead and share that in the comments. And now, let’s keep going. In the early morning hours of October 5th, 2020, surveillance cameras captured a 23-year-old woman leaving a popular district filled with bars and nightclubs alongside an unknown man. That woman was Marisella Battello Valadez. She was visiting from out of town and had only recently met the man whose car she was seen getting into on video.
But Marisella was unable to get back into her friend’s apartment because it had been locked from the outside. She had nowhere else to go, and the man she had just met seemed appealing. He was charismatic, calm, and never came across as pushy. What Marisella was about to discover was something she could never have imagined.
And it was not just this charming stranger she needed to worry about. There were other dangers waiting inside his home and other women in his life. On October 5th, 2020, Maricella Batello Valadez was scheduled to board a flight from Dallas, Texas to her hometown of Seattle, Washington. The 23-year-old had just spent a long weekend visiting her longtime friend and former boyfriend, Raul Ortiz.
But when boarding began that day, Marisella was nowhere to be found among the passengers. Throughout the airport terminal, a voice repeatedly echoed over the loudspeaker. Marisella Batello Valadez, please proceed to your boarding gate. When the plane finally took off, the seat assigned to Marisella remained empty.
Back in Washington, her parents and younger brother began to worry. Marisella was a caring and loving older sister, a cheerful, kind, and hardworking daughter. Her parents were incredibly proud of her. Concern over the missed flight quickly turned into fear that something terrible had happened. Meanwhile, her friend Raul woke up at his apartment in Dallas and realized that Marisella had never come back the night before.
He had no idea where she was. Raul told police that he had drunk too much the previous evening, lost his keys, and eventually fell asleep outside his apartment door while waiting for his roommate to return and let him inside. Marisella did not want to sit outside and wait. At around 1:00 in the morning, she called a lift and headed back into the city on her own.
She was dropped off in Deep Ellum where the bars and nightclubs were still packed with people drinking, dancing, and enjoying the night. A surveillance camera mounted behind a club called Punk Society and aimed at a large parking lot captured Marisella walking alongside an unidentified man.
Footage from another camera farther down the area showed the two of them again as they made their way toward a vehicle. Investigators later determined that the car was a black 2014 Audi A3. Marisella got into the vehicle with the unknown man. Because the footage had no audio and there was very little other evidence available at the time.
It was unclear whether she entered the car willingly. Several days passed. There was no activity on Marisella’s credit or debit cards. Calls and text messages from worried family members and friends went unanswered. Her family told Dallas County investigators that Marisella would never voluntarily get into a stranger’s car outside a nightclub.
As a result, detectives initially believed they were dealing with an abduction. But everything changed when they managed to track down the black Audi. At 1:28 in the morning, the driver of the vehicle and Marisella Batello Valadez walked into a 7-Eleven convenience store. In one frame of the surveillance footage, Marisella can be seen near the entrance smiling.
She walked over to the refrigerated section and picked out a drink. Nothing in the video suggested that she was being held against her will or forced to go anywhere. Automatic license plate readers positioned throughout the city captured the registration number of the black Audi. When investigators identified the owner of the vehicle and compared his driver’s license photo with the man seen in the 7-Eleven footage, the match was confirmed.
The man was 31-year-old Charles Chuck Beltran. Chuck worked as a security guard at the entrance of a nightclub in Deep Ellum, not far from where he had met Marisella. He also had a criminal record. He had served 2 and a half years in prison for aggravated robbery involving an unloaded firearm.
During that crime, he struck a man with a pistol and stole his wallet. When investigators examined the GPS data from Marisella’s cell phone, they discovered that her last known location matched the address where the Audi was registered. It was Charles Beltran’s house. Marisella had gone there voluntarily, and from that moment on, no one saw or heard from her again.
Special Agent Taylor Paige of the Dallas FBI joined the investigation to assist Dallas County authorities. On the afternoon of October 14th, about a week and a half after Marisella was last seen alive, Agent Paige, accompanied by patrol officers and a county detective, arrived at Chuck’s home in Mosquite, roughly 20 minutes from Deep Ellum.
After receiving no response to repeated knocks at the door, the agent decided to call the woman leasing the house, Lisa Dykes. When Lisa answered, she told agent Page that she had not seen Chuck for several weeks. When he asked her to clarify the nature of her relationship with the young ex-convict, she refused to answer.
Lisa also said that she had no way of contacting Chuck and knew nothing about where he might be. He is not a suspect. He’s just currently a person of interest uh regarding this case because we know that he was the last person to have uh been seen with her and to speak with her. and we would just like the person to uh give us a call.
Let us know uh you’re not a suspect. Uh we just need some information. Too much time is passing and I’m afraid something has happened to her. If they could find it in their heart to tell where he is. I wouldn’t want them to be suffering the pain I’m going through. It’s very difficult not knowing anything. This hurts so much.
I can’t stop thinking about her and ask God to protect her and that nothing bad has happened to her. I pray every day for any news about While law enforcement continued searching for Chuck, investigators also obtained a warrant to search the house where Maricella Batello Valadez had last been known to be.
The home looked as if it had been hastily emptied before a move. Belongings were scattered across the floors, closet and cabinet doors stood open, and trash was strewn across countertops and throughout the house. In the entryway, a box spring had been propped against the wall. It was unclear how long the property had effectively been abandoned, but it appeared that during that time, part of the ceiling above the primary bedroom had collapsed, covering a dresser and sections of the floor with insulation.
The kitchen looked especially neglected. Food and cleaning supplies had been left out on the counters. It seemed as though the occupants had simply dropped everything and walked away with no intention of ever returning. During their search, investigators also documented a small statue that had been arranged inside the Mosquite home as part of what appeared to be a shrine.
At the time, they did not consider it particularly significant. Later, it was identified as Santa Muerte, a female figure associated with death. She’s regarded as a personification of death and is venerated within Mexican faux Catholicism as well as some modern pagan traditions. Uh crime scene investigators sprayed the entire house with blue star.
A forensic reagent used to detect traces of blood in what was believed to be a guest bathroom. A small section of the door frame and part of the bathtub glowed blue in the dark, indicating a positive reaction for blood. The area that drew the greatest attention from investigators was the guest bedroom. It was later confirmed to be Chuck Beltran’s room.
In that bedroom, a section of carpet beneath the window had been thoroughly cleaned. Despite obvious efforts to remove any evidence, reddish brown stains were still visible through the carpet fibers. When blue star was applied to the area, the test indicated the presence of blood. Laboratory analysis of the carpet sample confirmed what investigators had suspected.
The blood belonged to Marisella Batello Valadez. Two additional blood DNA profiles were also identified on the carpet, one male and one female. Investigators believed they could belong to the three people living in the home. Chuck Beltran, Lisa Dykes, or possibly Lisa’s wife, Nina Morano.
Finding the lease holder of the property, Lisa Dykes, became an urgent priority for investigators. As they spoke with people who knew her, they began uncovering what many described as a highly unusual living arrangement inside the household. Lisa had spent more than 30 years working as a litigation and settlement negotiation parillegal.
Over the course of her life, she had been married three times and raised three children. Her youngest child, 20-year-old Chelsea, had reportedly been pushed out of the house so that Chuck Beltran could move in. According to one of Lisa’s co-workers at the law firm, she openly talked about wanting her children to leave home so she could live exactly the way she wanted.
And that life apparently included sharing a house with a 31-year-old nightclub security guard and aspiring rapper. Chuck had his own bedroom as well as a dedicated workspace, including a recording studio. He even had a closet lined with acoustic foam for recording rap vocals. Lisa bought Chuck a car, the same black Audi A3.
She also registered a company for him called Math Class and financed his music videos. One of those music videos was filmed in the driveway of the Mosquite home. Both Lisa’s coworker and her longtime friend and hair stylist told investigators that the nature of the relationship between Lisa and Chuck seemed completely obvious to them. In their view, Lisa was Chuck’s sugar mama, a woman who financially supports a younger partner, and she made no effort to hide it or appear embarrassed by the arrangement.
She enjoyed talking about the financial support she provided Chuck, as well as other aspects of their relationship. That arrangement remained unchanged even after 56-year-old Lisa married her best friend in 2019, 48-year-old Staten Island attorney Nina Morano. who had recently been widowed. According to the same witnesses, Lisa’s marriage also appeared to have a financial component.
After her husband’s death, Nenah inherited a substantial amount of money. She also had a successful legal career in New York and earned a very good income. After the wedding, Nenah continued working near New York and maintained a second home in Pennsylvania. It appears that Nenah also became part of the arrangement involving Chuck.
She moved into the house in Mosquite and began living there with them. Even more notably, when it came time to choose a shared last name, both she and Lisa gave up their own surnames and legally became known as Lisa Beltran and Nina Beltran. During the early morning hours of October 5th, 2020, the same day Marisella Battello Valadez disappeared, cell phone data showed that all three residents of the house were there with Marisella.
Arrest warrants for capital murder were issued for all three individuals. Charles Beltran, Lisa Dykes, and Nenah Morano. The house had been abandoned, their phones had gone silent, and the whereabouts of all three remained unknown. Phone records from the night of October 5th showed that both Lisa’s and Nenah’s phones traveled from the house to an area south of Dallas near Hutchkins, Texas.
The region is heavily wooded and located near several bodies of water. Dozens of officers from multiple law enforcement agencies began systematically searching the area for any sign of Marisella’s remains. Throughout November of 2020, search efforts continued in locations identified through the women’s cell phone data.
5 months later, in March of 2021, a person reportedly tracking feral cats in a wooded area near Hutchkins came across what appeared to be a human skull. The discovery was made not far from a location that law enforcement had already searched months earlier. Dental records confirmed that the remains belonged to Marisella Batello Valadez.
Um because of animal activity and environmental exposure, the medical examiner was unable to determine a cause of death from the partial remains that were recovered. 2 days later, law enforcement officers in Miami, Florida, tracked down and arrested Nina Morano Beltran. She and Lisa had been renting a house in the area.
However, after Nina was taken into custody, Lisa disappeared once again. At that point, there was still no sign of Chuck either. During this period, Lisa remained in contact with Chuck. Text messages later revealed that the two continued hiding from law enforcement even while Lisa was trying to find an attorney for Nenah, who was being held in a Florida county jail.
Can you send me some money? I need to switch vehicles. There are capital murder warrants out for all three of us. Apparently, they found her, but the attorney says they’re just trying to build a case. They don’t actually have any evidence. They’re only guessing. I hope she’s holding up and doesn’t break. I need to get out of the state as soon as possible.
How much money do you need? How much can you send? A few days after Nah was arrested in Miami, Lisa was located near Orlando. A heavily armed team of law enforcement officers prepared to take the 57-year-old parillegal into custody and return her to Texas to stand trial. Investigators had tracked the couple’s movements as they continued driving vehicles registered in their names across the border into Mexico and then through several states before eventually arriving in Florida.
After receiving Agent Paige’s phone call, Lisa took a series of steps to avoid arrest. She and Nenah contacted their neighbor, who also worked as a real estate agent in Pennsylvania, and arranged to put Nenah’s house on the market. Investigators believe the proceeds from the sale were intended to help finance their flight from Justice.
They also arranged to have Chuck’s Audi transported to Pennsylvania. Detectives suspected this was because the vehicle was being sought as evidence in the investigation into Marisella’s murder. When law enforcement officers arrived at the door to arrest Lisa Dykes Beltran, she was in the middle of a phone call with her attorney.
By May, both Lisa and Nah had been returned to Texas. Each posted a $500,000 bond and was released to home confinement with electronic ankle monitors. They were charged with capital murder as well as tampering with evidence. Chuck was eventually arrested as well. Authorities found him in Utah where he was staying with the family of a former girlfriend, the mother of one of his children.
For several months, Lisa and Nina complied with the conditions of their release. That continued from May through December of 2021. Then they decided to run. At 7:30 on Christmas morning, both electronic ankle monitors were disabled within roughly 4 minutes of each other. Taking advantage of the holiday and limited staffing within Dallas County’s pre-trial supervision department, the women managed to avoid detection for two full days.
On December 27th, officials realized the monitors had been deactivated, but by then, Lisa and Nina had already boarded a plane and traveled approximately 9,000 m. Airline tickets purchased in their names showed a route to Seoul, South Korea, followed by Panom Pen, the capital of Cambodia. Cambodian immigration authorities confirmed that the couple had entered the country and had not traveled onward.
The Dallas FBI office was once again brought into the investigation. Working alongside Cambodian authorities and the nation’s largest bank, agents were able to trace cash withdrawals made by Lisa and Nenah. An ATM camera captured the license plate of the vehicle that had driven the women to the machine.
Following that lead, local investigators located the taxi and its driver. He provided the address where the two foreign women had been staying in the coastal city of Sihanukville. Lisa and Nina Beltron were arrested for a second time. In February of 2022, they were extradited back to Texas. This time they remained in custody.
Their trials were scheduled for 2023. Both women pleaded not guilty to murder. By that point, it was clear that they were connected in some way to the death of Marisella Batello Valadez. What remained unclear was what motive they could possibly have had. It was also still a mystery what had actually happened that night inside Charles Beltran’s bedroom.
As the first of the planned trials approached the trial of Lisa Dykes, Chuck decided to cooperate with prosecutors. He agreed to testify and tell the jury what he claimed was the truth about Marisella’s death. According to Chuck, Lisa Dykes burst into his bedroom in a jealous rage when she saw 23-year-old Marisella asleep beside him in bed.
Lisa allegedly stabbed her. Chuck claimed he woke up during the attack. According to his account, Lisa was straddling Marisella and repeatedly stabbing her with a knife. After the attack, Nenah entered the room. Realizing that Marisella was already dead, Chuck told investigators that he fled the house, leaving his two partners behind in the blood soaked bedroom with the young woman he had brought home only a few hours earlier.
The conclusion of the evidence, I know the conclusion of the evidence. What you are going to decide is that this young lady right here, sweet funloving Marisel Batella Valadez, it just came down here for a long weekend. was killed by Lisa Dykes. Her body dumped outside South Dallas in Wilmer on a country road by Miss Dykes and her wife Nina Morano.
Lisa Dykes’s defense argued that she had absolutely no motive to kill Marisella. She had never even met her before. According to the defense, Lisa was not a jealous sugarmama who flew into a rage after Chuck brought another woman home. Quite the opposite. Lisa claimed that she and Chuck were not romantically involved at all.
She insisted that she had never shown jealousy over his behavior, even though situations like this allegedly happened on a regular basis. Chuck was known by the names Chuck Gorgeous and Chuck 5050. According to the defense, the 5050 nickname meant that 50% amazing and 50% crazy. Mrs. Doc’s gonna tell you she’s never met Marcel.
She’s never met the show and she could care less about the women that Charles was having at that house. He was a rapper that she was investing in. Yes. Was there some twisted um what you call it? little triangle between the Yes. Yes. But you talk about Chuck Gorgeous. That’s what he calls himself, Chuck Gorgeous, because of the way he, you know, he manipulates women.
You know, I don’t know if if Charles killed uh Miss Palz. I don’t know what happened to Miss Palz. What I do know is that they will not be able to prove to you that Miss Dykes committed this offense because she didn’t. In an effort to establish a possible motive, prosecutors called Lisa’s longtime hair stylist, Kathy Dylon, to testify in court.
Told me that she had got home from work uh Friday and that uh she caught Chuck and Nina in bed together. when she was telling me this, she uh she was like, I could just kill her. She said she goes, “Yeah.” She says, “Uh, I cannot believe that I caught them in bed together.” Uh, and I told her, I said, “Lisa, you invited this, you know, I was like, you have let this trio thing go on.
Did you not think that it was going to happen?” I never saw Lisa like upset, you know? She she was always like, you know, but this particular day she was very very upset. Kathy also testified that after Lisa met Chuck at a bar owned by her son, she began making dramatic changes to her appearance.
She started getting tattoos, cut her hair short, and began dying it in bright, bold colors. During that period, she lost approximately 60 lbs, underwent a lower faceelift, and had cosmetic procedures on her thighs to improve the appearance of her chin and legs. According to witnesses, all of these changes were made in an effort to attract Chuck and transform herself into the woman she believed he wanted her to be.
In a surprising and rather unusual turn during the trial, Kathy also described what she considered another extreme aspect of Lisa Dykes’s personality. I see um an altar um and it had this big statue thing that to me resemble like a grim reaper. She goes, “What’s wrong?” And I was like and I looked at I pointed at I was like, “Are you into witchcraft?” And she goes, “Well, I’ve dabbled in it.
” I just said, “Well, okay, girl. Teach a zone. Just don’t put a spell on me.” And I was like, “Come on.” Jamie Scarpa, a friend from Pennsylvania and a real estate agent, testified about the panic and urgency with which Nenah and Lisa were trying to sell the Pennsylvania house. The women traveled to the property with Jaime to prepare it for sale and sign the necessary paperwork.
While inspecting the home, they came across something unexpected. Her house is bright and airy and open. Uh, all the windows and doors were covered with like black sheets. It was pitch black in the house when I walked in. And there was a closet that’s next to the foyer. Inside that large closet was like a life-size, I guess you call it a statue of a skeleton.
And it was wearing like a robe and it was holding something like this. There’s like a mat on the floor in front of it. And what did they do in front of that? Uh, kneelled. Um, what did you think about that? I was ready to go. Yeah. Terrifying. Scary. Did you in December, did you receive, I guess, a photograph from a buyer’s agent about some concerning things in the home? Yes, we did.
Um, a buyer’s agent had said that a buyer was concerned about something that they seen and they sent me a photo. It was like a smaller what I would call grim reaper statue and it was on like a small side table with candles and like little cups of alcohol or money in the cups. And what did that statue in your research represent? Um, the Santa Marta statue was angel of death that they had up.
Charles Beltran was the prosecution’s key witness. Over time, he had changed his version of events multiple times. At first, he told a friend that Marisella got into his car, but the two of them never even went to his house. Later, he told police that she had been at his home but woke up and left unharmed.
In a subsequent version of the story, he claimed that Lisa stabbed Marisella while Nenah joined in the attack. Ultimately, when he testified before the jury, he placed the blame solely on Lisa Dykes. Tell me what happens next. I wake up to her screaming, saying, “Help me. Help me.” I guess just from all the movement going on in the bed.
That’s when I wake up and I see Lisa on top of her. She’s like with the knife coming down like this. And once I noticed the knife, that’s when I pushed Lisa off of her. Just my reaction was just to push her and I pushed her hard and her and Maretta like tumble over. Uh Lisa still got a hold of her. As I get up, I’m still trying to process what the hell is going on.
I see Lisa still grabbing her. I I jump over the bed and as I come over to the bed, I’m trying to pry Lisa off of her, pull her apart. ends up as as I’m pulling them off, it’s like Lisa just kind of like let go and she just tumbles over. I look towards Lisa and I grab Lisa and I pin her to the wall and I’m like, “What the f is what the hell are you doing?” You know, and she’s like, “I told you not to bring any more girls over here.
” Well, she’s like, “I’m just getting tired of this.” And you can quote if you need to say a first word quote and I want you to quote tell the story exactly what you remember Lisa saying to you. She was just said that I told you not to bring any more girls over here.
Why are you disrespecting us? I do everything for you and she was just like you need to get your little say it your little [ __ ] and y’all need to leave now. I need to leave. And Lisa’s just still standing there like just looking at her, just staring at her. Just laying there. Staring at Marisella. Yes.
And I could hear her saying something like I can’t recall what she’s saying, but it sounds like she’s saying like, “What? What? Like, what did I do? What did I do? What did I do?” What do you tell Lisa? I’m like, “Lisa, we have to call 911.” She was like, “No, like like hold on. think like think about what you’re doing before you do it.
And to me like registering that I was just thinking about the whole scene like I’m with her. I’m the last one with her. She’s in my room. You know, it looks like I did something so Yeah. I was just like, “You need to figure this [ __ ] out. You You told me to [ __ ] leave. Like you did this [ __ ] Like you need to I’m gone.
” You know what I’m saying? I can’t deal with this. Like it was just so much to deal with. And I put my clothes on and grabbed my stuff and left. Cell phone location data supported Chuck’s account of his movements. According to those records, he left the house and drove to the apartment complex where his former girlfriend lived. The following morning, he even stopped to get an oil change, a visit that was also documented.
After that, he did not return to the house until Lisa called and told him it was okay to come back. By the time he returned a few days later, the room had already been thoroughly cleaned. About 10 days after the killing, when the FBI began visiting the house, Lisa and Nah started making preparations to flee. Chuck testified that he went with them because he did not believe anyone would accept that he was innocent.
You ever think about calling police later down the road? I’ve I’ve always had in the back of my mind, but I always thought that it could be pointed to me. They’re attorneys. They have good jobs. They don’t have no record. I mean, I look like the bad guy. I was scared. The defense also focused on the two additional blood samples recovered from the scene.
Investigators initially believed they might belong to Chuck, Lisa, or Nenah. However, forensic testing revealed that neither sample matched any of the three. But the truth of the matter is, not only did you have girls, you had guys, you had people over there all the time. Yes, sir. The early morning hours of October the 5th, you had more than just No, sir.
We just have to take your word for it, right? That’s what that’s what happened. Now, we have to take your word for it, right? This further is actually led to your murder case being dismissed, right? This is the truth. That’s not my question. You know, your case is going to be dismissed based on this verdict, based on you cooperating with the state, right? Yes, sir.
Lisa Dykes Beltran took the stand in her own defense. She told the jury that Charles Beltran was an aggressive and dangerous man whom she feared. Charles is a lot more aggressive than what you have been told. He was really bad as far as aggression goes. Um, one night in particular, he was trying to get a hold of me for money.
Whenever I woke up in the morning, I had 99 missed phone calls from this man. 99. She also firmly denied ever having a romantic relationship with Chuck, despite the fact that the trial included extensive testimony suggesting otherwise. During her testimony, Lisa insisted that there had never been any romantic involvement between the two of them.
She rejected claims that their relationship went beyond a normal friendship and disputed the allegations that had been presented in court. At the same time, numerous witnesses who testified under oath described their relationship very differently. Throughout the trial, jurors heard from multiple people who claimed that Lisa and Chuck shared a much closer connection than the one she acknowledged.
That conflict became one of the key issues in the case. The jury was left to weigh the competing versions of events and decide which account they found more credible. Despite all of the testimony presented during the proceedings, Lisa remained unwavering in her position. She continued to maintain that she had never been romantically involved with Chuck and that any claims suggesting otherwise were simply untrue.
A love interest. No, Chuck was and continued to always be a business interest that went sideways. Okay. So, you hear all these women talk about how sweet he was. Is that the the 50/50 he’s referring to? Well, it it’s not the 50 I got most of the time in the later days, but he could definitely appear to be.
He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Lisa also strongly denied claims that she worshiped Santa Muerte or had any serious interest in witchcraft, the occult, or similar practices. During her testimony, she rejected the prosecution’s suggestions that linked her to those beliefs. According to Lisa, those allegations were simply untrue and created a misleading impression of her in the eyes of the jury.
Particular attention was given during the trial to the shrine that investigators discovered inside the Mosquite home. The item was discussed repeatedly throughout the proceedings and attracted significant attention because of its unusual appearance. However, Lisa testified that the shrine did not belong to her.
According to her account, it belonged to Chuck and she had nothing to do with it. The statue found at the Pennsylvania home was also a topic of discussion. Prosecutors highlighted the item as part of the broader narrative of the case and questions surrounding possible occult interests. Lisa, however, insisted that the statue had no religious or mystical significance whatsoever.
She testified that it was simply a Halloween decoration used as part of seasonal decor. In short, Lisa completely denied any connection to the worship of Santa Muerte and explained every item highlighted by the prosecution as either an everyday household object or a holiday decoration unrelated to any religious or occult practices.
There was a like a Halloween skeleton that’s fulls size like human sized and he had put because they were Mormon a Mormon religious like piece of clothing on it. It’s it’s like a a long white robe but it was bundled up in like on the floor of the closet. It’s not anything else. So, it was just a bunch of stuff and storage that we had in there that we kept locked, including paperwork that we didn’t want shown to people coming to look at the house.
Well, you heard the the neighbor from uh Pennsylvania said them were kneeling and kneeling to it, praying to it. Remember that? I remember her saying that and I also have no concept why she would have said it. We never did that. Lisa also offered her own explanation regarding her physical condition at the time of Marisella’s murder, claiming that significant health issues severely limited what she was capable of doing.
During her testimony, she stated that she was still recovering from cosmetic surgery during that period. According to Lisa, the recovery process had been far more difficult than expected, and the effects of the procedure continued to impact her daily life. She told the jury that the surgery on her thighs uh had in her view gone badly and resulted in serious complications.
Um Lisa claimed that she was experiencing intense constant pain that affected her almost all the time and significantly restricted her physical abilities. According to her testimony, even routine everyday tasks had become extremely difficult. She said she struggled to move around and that nearly every movement caused discomfort. Uh Lisa also stated that walking without pain was difficult and that even driving a car required considerable effort.
These were the circumstances she pointed to when describing her physical condition during the period when according to the prosecution the events surrounding Marisella’s murder took place. On a scale of 1 to 10, I used to think having a baby would be was 10. Right. With this particular injury, where this was and pain factor involved, this is a 10 and having a baby is five.
Okay. So, that gives you an idea of what that was in dealing with it. However, evidence presented during the trial suggested that Lisa continued to provide substantial support to Charles Beltran despite her claims about the nature of their relationship. On October 3rd, just 2 days before the murder, Lisa made a 4-hour trip to Arkansas to attend one of Chuck’s performances at a nightclub.
The journey required a significant investment of both time and effort, something prosecutors highlighted during the proceedings. Even more notably, Lisa was the one who paid for the event. That fact was repeatedly referenced in court as an example of her involvement in Chuck’s life and career. Her financial support did not stop there.
According to evidence presented at trial, she also covered transportation expenses, paid for multiple hotel rooms, and bought drinks for Chuck and his friends. Witnesses testified that Lisa regularly took on a substantial share of the group’s expenses during trips and social gatherings. When the group returned to Texas after the trip, the celebratory mood continued.
Rather than heading home and spending the evening quietly, the aspiring rapper chose to keep the night going with friends. It was that evening that the encounter at the center of the entire case took place. While out socializing, Chuck met Marisella Batello Valadez. Later that night, he brought her back to his house.
At the time, it may have seemed like nothing more than a chance meeting after a night out with friends. But those events would become the beginning of a tragic chain of circumstances that ultimately found itself at the center of a highprofile investigation and murder trial. You and Lena are there in your room asleep? Yes, with the dog.
On that day, did you ever come in contact with um Murice? No. When Chuck arrived there with her, according to the phone records? In the early morning hours, did you ever know he was there? No. Anything unusual about him arriving at your house in the early morning hours? No.
You heard him say that uh at some point you came into that room and you stabbed Morris. Did you go into that room and stabil? No. Did you struggle with Marcelo? No. Absolutely not. Did you argue with Chuck about Marissa? No. Had you ever met Marissa? No. Finally, Lisa offered her own explanation for the cell phone location data that investigators said placed her in the Hutchkins area after the murder.
Those records drew particular attention because Marisella’s remains were later discovered in that same region. During her testimony, Lisa attempted to explain why her phone appeared in the area at that specific time. According to her account, the trip to Hutchkins had nothing to do with Marisella or the events being investigated.
She testified that she and Nah had driven to a FedEx distribution center in Hutchkins that morning. According to Lisa, the purpose of the trip was entirely work-related. She explained that Nina was working on a legal case in New York and was expecting urgent documents that needed to be reviewed immediately.
According to her version of events, the paperwork was important enough that they felt it was necessary to go directly to the distribution center to check on the delivery. However, Lisa claimed that when they arrived, the documents were nowhere to be found. According to her testimony, the trip accomplished nothing because the expected materials were not at the FedEx facility.
That was how she explained her presence in the Hutchkins area, a location that would later become one of the most significant places in the entire investigation after Marisella’s remains were discovered there. If you were in that area, would that explain why your phones were pinging in that area? I would assume so. Other than going to that winter green 45 and moving back up to go to the distribution center, did you ever go to 3600 pulo and drop a body out? No, sir.
The prosecution concluded its case by directing the jury’s attention to what it believed was the central issue in the entire story. During the final portion of its presentation, the state argued that what it considered the biggest lie in Lisa’s testimony was also one of the most important facts for understanding what happened and why events unfolded the way they did.
Prosecutors maintained that this was not merely a minor inconsistency or an isolated contradiction in her statements. In their view, it went directly to the question of motive and helped explain the reasons they believed were behind the murder. At the center of that argument was Lisa’s relationship with Charles Beltran.
The prosecution described that relationship as a critical factor in the case. According to the state, it played a key role in the overall sequence of events and helped explain the motive that prosecutors had presented to the jury throughout the trial. As they wrapped up their case, prosecutors once again emphasized that this issue was, in their opinion, one of the most important considerations for evaluating the credibility of Lisa’s testimony and understanding the reasons they believed ultimately led to the tragic outcome.
And in this case, she swore on direct and swore on cross over and over and over again that she had no romantic or sexual relationship with Charles Beltran. Yet in her phone that she is on talking to someone when she gets arrested in March of 2021, March 26, his name is Lover. She chose that name for him.
yet she sat up there and lied to you. No, I he was just a business investment. And what you see is the evolution of Lisa Dice right there from when prior to when she met Charles Beltran all the way through to the bottom. Full tattoos, new haircut, platinum hair, makeup. The last hair appointment she had with Cath, she changes her appearance again.
Bright pink. She still has the scars from her faceelift that Nah paid for. This is the willing evolution of a woman that was obsessed with a young, much younger man that was in the rap scene and then the bar scene. And this is what she thought he wanted her to look like. So that’s what she did. The jury reached its verdict with remarkable speed.
After closing arguments concluded and the judge provided all necessary instructions, the jurors left the courtroom to begin deliberations. In cases involving serious criminal charges and a large volume of evidence, deliberations can often take many hours or even several days. But that was not the case here.
The jury reached its decision in just 90 minutes. Such a brief deliberation suggested that the jurors came to a consensus relatively quickly regarding the evidence they had heard and the conclusions they were asked to draw. Not long after beginning their discussions, they returned to the courtroom where their verdict was announced.
The jury unanimously find the defendant Lisa Joe Dykes guilty of murder as charged in the indictment. Or the second case, we the jury unanimously find the defendant Lisa Joe Dykes guilty of tampering with physical evidence guilty on both counts. That was the conclusion the jury reached after reviewing all of the evidence and testimony in a case that had drawn significant public attention for a long time.
The charges involved murder and tampering with evidence through efforts to conceal Marisella’s body in a wooded area near Hutchkins. Those actions formed the foundation of the case that ultimately resulted in a conviction. The same jurors remained in court for the next phase of the proceedings, the sentencing stage. After determining guilt, they heard additional testimony and evidence that could influence the final outcome.
Among those who addressed the court was Marisella’s younger brother. His statement became one of the most emotional moments of the hearing. He described his sister as a kind, cheerful, and caring person who was always there for the people she loved. According to him, her absence remains a painful loss for the entire family, and he still misses her every single day.
Marisella made a bad decision on the night of her death when she got into Charles Beltran’s car. It was a choice that became part of a tragic chain of events. But she could not have known what would happen next. Nor could she have predicted the actions that prosecutors said followed. After the sentencing hearing concluded, the court imposed its punishment.
Lisa was sentenced to life in prison for murder. In addition, she received another 20 years for tampering with evidence. The court therefore found her responsible not only for the killing itself, but also for the efforts that followed to conceal its aftermath. Nina Morano and Charles Beltron both pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence.
As part of their agreements, they accepted responsibility for those actions. In exchange, the murder charges against them were dismissed. As a result, the criminal cases against both of them concluded without a trial on the murder allegations, while the evidence tampering charges were resolved through guilty
Disclaimer : This content may be created by AI for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.
