A Scott man whose marriage was on the rocks told friends his wife had left town on a last-minute business trip. Five days later, his wife's body turned up with gunshot wounds to the head inside a burned minivan in Nashville, Tenn.

Yesterday, Henry R. Lanz, 42, went on trial for the January 2007 slaying of Paula Lanz, 39.

Allegheny County Assistant District Attorney Stephie Ramaley told jurors in her opening statement, "This case is about control -- or shall I say lack of control." She said Mr. Lanz, who records indicate had violated a protection-from-abuse order two years earlier, "realized he had no control" and his wife wasn't taking him back.

She said testimony would show that the defendant did not want to meet his wife at a Wal-Mart to return their two young daughters to her custody, because of what he told friends: "I'm not meeting her anywhere where they have cameras."

He once showed up at the friends' home with four large garbage bags and left them there for pickup.

At his new home in Scott, police found missing carpet and blood spatters on the wall matching his wife's blood type.

After police discovered her Kia minivan in Nashville, they interviewed Mr. Lanz. He told them that the culprit was a man named Karl Laughlin, who was hiding out at Mr. Lanz's home to escape police apprehension in an assault case. He said Mr. Laughlin "took care" of his problem and drove his wife's body to Tennessee. Mr. Laughlin advised him to come up with an alibi, he said.

Mr. Lanz is represented by Veronica Brestensky and J. Richard Narvin of the Office of Conflict Counsel. Ms. Brestensky said the burden was on the prosecution to show that Mr. Lanz, not Mr. Laughlin, killed Ms. Lanz. Mr. Laughlin apparently drove the body through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee before setting the car on fire after he spotted a police car, according to court documents.

Testimony resumes tomorrow before Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey A. Manning against Mr. Lanz, who is charged with homicide, conspiracy, hindering apprehension or prosecution, false reports to law enforcement, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

A separate nonjury trial is pending before Judge Randal B. Todd for Mr. Laughlin, 50, of Clairton, on charges including arson, reckless burning of a uninhabited or unoccupied structure, conspiracy, receiving stolen property, an access device offense, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. He is expected to testify as a key witness in the prosecution's case against Mr. Lanz.