Woman describes helping dispose of body in Leesburg woman's killing

LEESBURG, Fla. — A woman who claims she had a relationship with the suspect in the murder of an 84-year-old Leesburg woman took the stand in his trial Thursday.

Prosecutors said David Mariotti killed Bernadine Montgomery in 2016 after spending months building a friendship with her so he could later take advantage of her kindness to steal her money.

On the stand Thursday, Tracie Naffziger told jurors she helped get rid of Montgomery’s body.

She explained she was using lots of drugs at the time, and that the defendant forced her to get involved. She described their relationship as "friends withe benefits."

Naffziger already plead no contest on charges of accessory after the fact, first-degree murder and credit card theft for stealing the victim's credit cards and using them all over Lake County.

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Naffziger agreed to testify against Mariotti in his first-degree murder trial.

She claims Mariotti killed the victim and she showed up after the fact.

She told jurors about seeing the victim's body for the first time.

"She had something around her neck and she looked like maybe she had been strangled,” Naffziger said.

She also told the court that Mariotti told her that they needed to get rid of the victim's body.

"He said he wanted to get her out of the house before the neighbors started getting out,” Naffziger said.

She talked about how they got the victim's body out of the house.

"David dragged her. It was kind of hard to help,” Naffziger said.

She then explained how they drove about 45 minutes to a wooded area to dispose of the body.

"David had asked me to help him get her out of the car and took the rope off of her neck,” Naffziger said. “I went through a lot seeing that body.”

During the cross examination, the defense went after her credibility and pointed out that she was not able to recall previous statements she gave to authorities.

"I don't know if it was shock, but I can’t, at the time, remember every little detail or exactly what day it happened,” said Naffziger.

The defense tried to paint the witness as unreliable, and had her read her previous testimony several times.

The defense pointed out that Naffziger lied when she called the victim's credit card companies nine times over the course of a couple of days to keep the credit cards active so that she could continue her spending spree.

Cox Media Group