Friday marked a seismic shift in the murder case of Lisa Dykes, 60, who is currently on trial for allegedly stabbing Marisela Botello-Valadez, 23, to death. The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office filed to drop the murder cases against Dykes’ co-defendants: wife Nina Marano, 52, and the couple’s self-professed “boy toy” Charles Beltran, 34, say local news outlets in Texas.
Both still face charges of tampering with evidence. The DA’s office did not explain its decision to drop the murder charges, except to say in a filing that it was “in the interest of justice,” according to Fort Worth NBC affiliate KXAS.
Beltran reportedly said under cross-examination Friday that prosecutors would drop his murder case if he testified truthfully in Dykes’ trial.
He told the court that he first met Botello-Valadez during a chance encounter in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas. Beltran claimed the two of them struck up a conversation. It progressed to them getting drinks and returning to the home where he lived with Dykes and Marano. There, he and Botello-Valadez had consensual sex in his room, he reportedly testified.
They went to sleep, and he woke up to find Dykes stabbing Botello-Valadez in a jealous rage.
“I wake up to [the victim] screaming ‘Help me, help me’ and I look up and just from all the movement I see Lisa on top of her,” he reportedly said. “[Lisa’s] like with a knife coming down like this.”
Prosecutors dropped the murder cases against Charles Beltran and Nina Marano (both pictured in the insets). That leaves Lisa Dykes, seen here sitting in court, the sole defendant charged with murdering Marisela Botello-Valadez. (Mug shots: Dallas County Sheriff’s Office; screenshot: KDFW)
Beltran testified to starting a relationship with Dykes. She supported his career as an aspiring rapper and insisted he move in with her at her home in Mesquite, Texas, he said. Eventually, Marano allegedly joined this situation marrying Dykes and getting sexually involved with Beltran.
“Just months after the death of Nina’s husband, Lisa Dykes and Nina Marano get married,” prosecutor Robin Pittman said in opening statements. “They understood, though, that Charles Beltran would be part of this relationship.”
“I was their boy toy,” Beltran testified.
He claimed, however, that Dykes started acting possessive with him, telling him that he could not bring other women home. Nonetheless, he said he continued to do so, and that culminated in the murder of Botello-Valadez in early October 2020.
Botello-Valadez, a resident of Seattle, Washington, had been in Dallas to visit a friend. She was reportedly scheduled to fly back home the morning of the murder.
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Beltran testified that he tried to get between Dykes and the victim, eventually pinning Dykes to the wall. He testified to washing his face in the bathroom, then telling Dykes he was going and that she would have to handle this. He testified to leaving the scene stunned, and going about his day — getting his oil changed and hooking up with another woman.
Dykes’ defense paints Beltran as a liar.
“Charles Beltran cannot be trusted,” Dykes’ attorney, Heath Harris, said in opening statements last week.
He posited that evidence in the case was “not consistent” with a stabbing.
“What I do know, they will not be able to prove Ms. Dykes committed this offense because she did not,” he reportedly said.
Authorities claim that they found Botello-Valadez’s blood in the carpet at the defendant’s home.
While cross-examining Beltran, Harris reportedly suggested the possibility that other, uncharged people participated in murdering Botello-Valadez.
Under cross examination from Dykes’ attorney, Beltran admitted lying several times about what happened that night.
Asked why he did not call 911 if he was just a witness, Beltran, who has a criminal record, voiced fear of becoming the fall guy.
“They’re attorneys, they have good jobs,” he said of the Dykes and Marano. “Me, I look like a bad guy. I was scared.”
Botello-Valadez’s remains turned up six months after the murder in a wooded area near Wilmer, Texas.
As for the defendants, they allegedly fled Texas. Authorities first arrested Dykes and Marano in Florida. Beltran was taken into custody in Utah. Law enforcement said that Dykes and Marano skipped bond to flee to Cambodia, where authorities again arrested them.
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