SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A woman with a worsening relationship with her 79-year-old mother killed the older woman and dumped her body on the Barona Indian Reservation, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Ghazal Jessica Mansury, 43, is charged with murder in the September 2013 death of Mehria Mansury.
In his opening statement of trial, Deputy District Attorney Paul Greenwood told jurors the defendant and her mother argued constantly over the younger woman's "druggie" friends, a dog and the cleanliness of the older woman's Serra Mesa home.
Mehria Mansury went missing on Sept. 23, 2013, and her body was found nine days later.
When the victim disappeared, the defendant told family members that she didn't know whether her mother was, suggesting the older woman may have gone for a walk, Greenwood said.
An officer who went to the Amulet Street home on Sept. 24, 2013, was struck by the smell of bleach coming from a bathroom, Greenwood told the jury.
The victim's cellphone was on a table with the battery disconnected, the prosecutor said.
The defendant told police she went to work on Sept. 25, 2013, but her Viejas Casino club card was used twice at the casino twice after 4 a.m. that morning, Greenwood said. That same day, the defendant used a laptop computer to search "homicide" and "blood spatter," according to the prosecutor.
The night of Sept. 24, 2013, the defendant bought bleach and trash bags from a Walmart, according to the prosecutor.
After her mother went missing, Ghazal Mansury went into a City Heights porn shop and complained to an employee about her mother, the prosecutor told the jury.
"She (the defendant) said, 'Do you know that bitch took my dog to the pound,"' Greenwood said.
Some of the defendant's friends said Ghazal Mansury often cussed at her mother, he said.
He said Mehria Mansury kept her home "immaculate," but once the defendant moved back in, it turned into a "dump."
One family member described the home as "Hurricane Katrina" after the defendant moved in, according to the prosecutor.
Ghazal Mansury gave the porn shop owner a metal box with some of her mother's jewelry inside, telling the person to give it to a friend to sell to raise money for her defense should she be arrested, Greenwood told the jury.
A break in the case came when one of the defendant's friends called her ex-husband, who told police a body was dumped near Lakeside.
Once the body was found, Ghazal Mansury told a detective that she came home one day and found her mother dead near a ladder, then proceeded to load the victim's body into the trunk of her car and drove it out to the dump site.
Because the body was exposed to wild animals and insects, authorities don't know how the victim died, other than to say it was a homicide, Greenwood said. The victim's blood was found in the trunk of the car, Greenwood said.
San Diego police Officer Daniel McLaughlin testified that the victim told him in 2011 that she was scared of her daughter and her boyfriend.
The defendant faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
