OMAHA — Jury selection will begin on Monday in the trial of Aldrick Scott, the Kansas man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend in her Omaha home before burying her body in a shallow grave and fleeing to Belize.
Scott, 48, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, use of a firearm to commit a felony and evidence tampering in connection with the November 2022 slaying of 43-year-old Cari Allen. According to , Allen broke up with Scott just two weeks before she was reported missing.
The trial is scheduled to last two weeks, and opening statements are expected to take place Tuesday. If convicted of first-degree murder, Scott will receive an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole.
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Allen, an Iowa native who lived in Omaha for much of her life and worked as a caretaker for individuals with disabilities, was reported missing on Nov. 20, 2022, after her son and ex-husband were unable to contact her. Investigators searched Allen’s home, 2531 N. 167th St., and found a single bullet hole in the door of Allen’s bedroom — but there was no sign of Allen.
Further investigation revealed Allen had been on a date the evening of Nov. 19 at a nearby sports bar. According to an arrest affidavit for Scott, Allen told a friend that Scott had been texting and calling her incessantly throughout the date, leading her to turn off her phone.
Through cellphone location data and video surveillance, according to the affidavit, police found Scott had traveled from his home in Topeka, Kansas, to Omaha, where he arrived at the bar where Allen was on a date shortly before 10 p.m. Scott then went to Allen’s home, where a nearby doorbell camera captured him walking toward her residence at 10:28 p.m., according to the affidavit.
The doorbell camera captured Scott leaving the home at about 3:30 a.m., and he returned to Topeka on the morning of Nov. 20. Investigators found that GPS data on Scott’s SUV showed the vehicle was driven to an abandoned farm property south of Topeka and stayed there for 90 minutes on Nov. 20.
At noon on Nov. 21, according to the affidavit, Scott parked his Chevy Equinox at the Kansas City International Airport and took a flight to Mexico. Investigators searched the vehicle and found a Sig Sauer P329 handgun hidden in the spare tire compartment.
An arrest warrant was initially issued for Scott on kidnapping and accessory to a felony charges on Nov. 25, 2022, as Allen’s body had not been found. Scott was located in Belize on Dec. 6 and deported back to the U.S. the next day. He has been in custody at the Douglas County Jail since Dec. 15.
On Dec. 22, Allen’s frozen body was found wrapped in trash bags in a shallow grave at the abandoned farm property in Pawnee County, Kansas. An autopsy ruled her cause of death as a single gunshot wound to the chest, and the charges against Scott were upgraded to first-degree murder.
Ahead of trial, Scott filed multiple motions to suppress evidence obtained during his interviews with law enforcement, which were denied by Douglas County District Court Judge Kimberly Pankonin. He also tried to suppress “all evidence obtained as a result of his arrest in Belize,†claiming the extradition treaty between Belize and the U.S. had been violated. That motion was also denied, as Pankonin found he had been deported for violating Belize’s immigration laws — not extradited.
Court documents provide little insight into Scott’s potential defenses, but an arrest affidavit for Scott says he told a friend that he killed Allen after she “pulled out a gun and he took the gun from her.â€