OMAHA — A Topeka man told a former platoon mate that he killed his Omaha ex-girlfriend after they got into an argument, a Douglas County sheriff's deputy testified Monday.
"I killed her," Deputy Neal Klein said Aldrick Scott told a former U.S. military comrade while he was in a hotel in Cancun, Mexico, just a day after he allegedly buried Cari Allen's body near an abandoned barn in Kansas.
Data from Scott's cellphone, his Snapchat location and the OnStar account from his Chevy Equinox as well as video surveillance helped investigators piece together his journey from Topeka to Omaha and back again after fatally shooting 43-year-old Allen in the chest at her northwest Omaha home on Nov. 20.
Scott will stand trial on charges of first-degree murder, use of a firearm to commit a felony and tampering with evidence, a judge ruled Monday.Â
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Investigators had first sought a warrant for the arrest of Scott on suspicion of kidnapping before Allen's frozen body was found in a shallow grave at an abandoned farm property on Dec. 21.Â
Authorities were able to figure out the location of Allen's body because that day they received OnStar data from Scott's SUV, mapping his previous locations.Â
Klein said that on Saturday, Nov. 19, Scott left Topeka about 7:30 p.m., about the same time Allen went to The Good Life Bar near 180th and Pacific streets with a date she had just had dinner with. Scott had called Allen repeatedly, up to four times within one hour, which prompted Allen to turn off her phone, Klein said.Â
Scott and Allen dated for about one year but had ended the relationship two weeks before, her friend told police.
Scott then arrived at The Good Life Bar about 10:15 p.m., but Klein said investigators weren't sure if he went inside the business. Scott left after roughly 10 minutes and headed toward Allen's house near 168th and Blondo streets.Â
Klein said he believes Scott entered Allen's house through her garage because he knew the code and that Scott waited for Allen to return home at about 11:30 p.m.
When investigators went to Allen's home the next day, because her ex-husband and son reported her missing, they found a single bullet hole that went through Allen's bedroom door, two walls and penetrated her son's bedroom door, Klein said. The holes had been freshly spackled, Klein said.
An autopsy determined that Allen was shot once in the chest and the bullet exited out of her back. Scott then wrapped a "combat bandage" — an elastic bandage with a big cotton pad to stem blood loss — around Allen's wounds and put her body in trash bags, Klein said.Â
Investigators believe Scott used Allen's sedan to transport her body from her home to where Scott's SUV was parked in a nearby neighborhood under construction. The trunk liner from Allen's car was missing and Scott's SUV trunk showed evidence of apparent traces of blood, Klein said. The vehicle has not yet been tested for DNA.Â
Scott then drove his SUV back to his Topeka home, arriving at 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 20. About four hours later, he spent roughly 70 minutes at the abandoned farm property, according to the OnStar data.Â
Scott purchased plane tickets that day to leave the next day from the Kansas City International Airport, flying to Houston and then Cancun, Klein said. Officials found his SUV in an airport parking garage and found a loaded Sig Sauer P320 9 mm semiautomatic handgun in a handgun case in the spare tire compartment.
Klein testified that on Nov. 22, despite having just flown to Cancun, Scott bought tickets to Fiji via Los Angeles the following day, so Klein and another detective went to Los Angeles to try to intercept Scott. But Scott never got on that plane, Klein said.Â
Scott eventually turned up in Belize, where he was taken into custody Dec. 6.
Authorities confiscated one of Scott's three phones and believe the two others were ditched in Houston and Cancun.Â
On that phone, Scott searched the internet asking whether he could be arrested or whether police could confront him in Belize, Klein said. Scott also Googled his name and Allen's name.