By ROBERT SILK Citizen Staff

Article Tools

The trial of a man accused of gunning down his girlfriend in July 2007 outside their Key Largo trailer is scheduled to begin today in Plantation Key.

Manuel Prieto Arenas, 48, is charged with fist-degree murder. If convicted on that count, he will serve a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

On July 6, 2007, Arenas led police on a daylong manhunt after allegedly shooting Maria Elena Proenza, 39, three times in full view of her mother early that morning. Proenza's body was retrieved from the curbside spot on Hibiscus Lane where she fell.

Proenza's mother, Maria Lastra, is expected to be among a half-dozen witnesses who Chief Assistant State Attorney Catherine Vogel said the state plans to call during the trial. Vogel anticipates the trial will last no more than three days.

Arenas' lawyer, Chief Assistant Public Defender Michael Strickland, said he plans to call three witnesses who knew Arenas and Proenza when they lived together in the south central Florida town of Moore Haven. Strickland said they will testify that Proenza was unfaithful to Arenas, prompting him to leave their house and move to Key Largo in the couples' mobile home.

"He essentially removed himself from the volatile situation," Strickland said.

Proenza and Lastra later came to Key Largo to take the mobile home back, Strickland said. In the early morning of July 6, 2007, the three apparently had an altercation at a gas station.

"Again Mr. Arenas removed himself and left that situation and went back to the home," Strickland said. "By the time he got there the girlfriend and mother were there, and that was when the troubles began."

rsilk@keysnews.com