DC Trial Opens in Case of Slain Journalist A German man who masqueraded as a well-connected general choked his elderly wife to death, searched online for escape plans and made false claims to part of the socialite's estate, a prosecutor said at the man's murder trial Tuesday. But Albrecht Muth's lawyer said during opening statements that his client is innocent and that prosecutors have no evidence linking him to the death of the 91-year-old victim. Charged with first-degree murder, Muth could face life in prison if convicted. Albrecht Muth didn't kill his wife. The government has their theory but that's all it is - a theory," attorney Craig Hickein said. And they can't prove that he did it because he didn't. Muth, 49, is standing trial two and a half years after Viola Drath, a German-born writer and socialite, was found strangled and fatally beaten in the couple's row home in Washington's posh Georgetown neighborhood. Since his arrest, the case has been dominated by Muth's eccentric behavior, including self-imposed bouts of starvation that have resulted in his absence from the trial. The couple's unusual marriage in 1990 brought together a German-born playwright well-known in diplomatic circles with a fellow expatriate nearly a half-century her junior. Prosecutors say Muth latched onto Drath's social connections, inventing various personas for himself and making false claims about being a brigadier general in the Iraqi army. He walked the neighborhood in a purchased military-style uniform and displayed a store-bought military certificate in their home. Drath's daughter, Fran Drath, said Muth was wearing an eye patch the first time she met him. Prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said the relationship was marked by episodes of Muth's angry outbursts and acts of violence. Muth pleaded guilty to assaulting Drath in 1992 and she called her grandson in 2006 to report that he had attacked her and dumped a bowl of soup on her head during a fight. "This murder was a very long time coming," Kirschner told jurors in D.C. Superior Court. Muth was arrested several days after he had called police to report having found his wife dead in a bathroom of their row home. There were no signs of forced entry to the home during the overnight hours when Drath is believed to have been killed, and a neighbor reported having heard a faint cry and a man's laugh, Kirschner said. After alerting her daughter to Drath's death, he presented her with a forged amendment to her will stating that he was entitled to up to $200,000 from her estate upon her death, according to authorities. In reality, Drath had specifically disinherited Muth, prosecutors say. He lived off a monthly allowance from Drath that had recently been reduced. It's clumsy. It's callous. It's calculated. It's motive for murder," Kirschner said of the bogus codicil. Detectives who examined Muth's laptop computer after Drath's death found Google searches for "crossing the Canadian border," extradition arrangements with Mexico and flights to Iceland, Kirschner said. Hickein, Muth's public defender, said there was no DNA link to the killing. He pointed out that Muth called police on his own and agreed to extensive interviews with detectives. Albrecht Muth didn't flee. He didn't hide. He didn't need to," Hickein said. Muth, though absent from the trial, is able to observe the proceedings through videoconference. He has been fasting intermittently, and doctors say he is too frail to be brought to court. A judge earlier ruled that Muth was intentionally making himself unavailable for trial and that the case could proceed without him.