Jury hears opening statements for Colorado Springs storage locker murder case

The trial is underway for James Woo, a man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and hiding her body in a storage locker in 2016.

Woo is facing first degree murder charges for the death of Julie Tureson, a mother of four, who lived in south Colorado Springs.

Opening statements were presented on Wednesday afternoon to a full courtroom.

Prosecutors say Woo planned an elaborate scheme to kill Tureson, after they broke up a few weeks prior to her murder.

Her body was found after her son reported her missing, and investigators issued an emergency ping on her cell phone.

That led police to a storage area on Platte, and Tureson’s body was found handcuffed inside her own car parked in one of the lockers.

Prosecutors say the locker the vehicle was found was rented to James Woo.

District Attorney Dan May also pointed out a few other key points.

He says an Uber was ordered in Woo’s name from the storage locker to Tureson’s neighborhood the morning the murder occurred. May shared his theory that Woo took the Uber to return to the vehicle he drove to Tureson’s, after driver her car to the storage locker that night.

The prosecution also says Woo attempted to flee the country the day of the murder, flying from Denver International Airport to Seattle with the intention of boarding a plane to Hong Kong. Woo was arrested boarding the plane.

May also referenced financial documents that showed Woo transferred $300,000 to an account in China that day as well.

May says the keys that fit the handcuffs Tureson was locked in were also found in Woo’s possession when he was arrested.

The defense also laid out their case in opening statements on Wednesday.

Woo’s attorneys say it is a misunderstanding, and that Woo actually found Tureson’s already dead body on the night she was killed.

They say Woo panicked, and implied that Woo may have taken the body to the storage locker and attempted to flee the country out of fear that police would pin him with the crime.

Woo’s attorney’s also say there is a lack of physical evidence tying Woo to the crime, and also say police failed to look at other suspects in the incident.

The trial is expected to last about three weeks.