Ruth Anne Maddox told her coworkers at the Shakopee Valley News that she was filing for a divorce and that it was going to be difficult.

She brought to work a locked steel box and showed coworkers where the keys were, saying she wanted them to know.

That box was turned over to police after Maddox was slain in November 2008 in her Prior Lake home. It contained sexually explicit e-mails that her estranged husband wrote, and he knew about them, prosecutors said Tuesday during opening statements in the trial of Charles "Tony" Maddox Jr. 46. Those e-mails may have been what triggered the violence, prosecutors say.

He's charged with second-degree murder in the death of the 45-year-old weekly newspaper reporter.

Defense attorney Fred Bruno told jurors that the real flashpoint was custody of the couple's two dogs, and that an irate Ruth Anne had gone after Tony by using a screwdriver and small knife to pick her way into a locked room during an argument.

Bruno said Tony kicked the door and it hit Ruth Anne, who fell down some stairs. The door came off and he threw that on her. Ruth Anne got up, knife in hand, Bruno said, so Tony put one knee on the arm with the knife and choked her.

Dml -, Star Tribune
Ruth Anne Maddox

She stopped moving right away, the lawyer said. Bruno claimed the door killed her and that Tony panicked.

Prosecutor Tanya O'Brien said Ruth Anne's body, wrapped in a sleeping bag and tent in her garage, had many injuries, including a crushed neck that left her struggling to breathe for three or four minutes before dying.

"There was so much blood," O'Brien said.

The case includes a "to-do" list that Tony Maddox allegedly was carrying when he told police that Ruth's body was in the garage.

O'Brien said that, at the Scott County jail, Maddox crumpled paper he had in his pocket and tossed it into a garbage can. A deputy retrieved it.

It listed tasks, including: "bleach out my sink, bleach out her sink, bleach out my shower," take off molding, get rid of a door, possibly carpeting and towels.

On the back was a list of items that included Clorox, makeup, duct tape and bags. Also, the word "Help!" was written, O'Brien said.

O'Brien said Tony Maddox was covering up his crimes. The defense says shock caused him to act bizarrely.

That included dressing as a woman, driving his wife's car to the airport, leaving a note saying she was leaving, and then changing out of his disguise and heading home on public transportation.

He also allegedly sent texts pretending to be her.

O'Brien said that, as Ruth Anne lay dead in the garage, Tony Maddox fielded a call from her daughter, who lives in Indiana, at 9:28 p.m. on Nov. 11, 2008.

"Where's my mom?" she had questioned him. "Please tell me you didn't hurt my mom."

Joy Powell • 952-882-9017