Prosecutors say Morgan Mengel convinced her young lover to kill her husband back in 2010.
Kevin Mengel's mother Kathy Barton was the first witness. She told the court she first became suspicious over Father's Day of 2010 when her son, a devoted father of three, broke from his normal routine of calling her several times every day.
She told the jury her daughter-in-law, Morgan, kept assuring her Kevin was alright and communicating with by texting. Their rocky marriage had seen brief separations before.
But within days, Morgan was under arrest and charged with murder, so too her lover Stephen Shappell and employee at the Mengels' landscaping business.
Shappell is looking at 40 to 80 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder and agreeing to testify against Morgan. He'll call her the mastermind who manipulated him in a plot to first poison Kevin Mengel's ice tea then bludgeoning him to death with shovels inside the couple's storage garage.
The government's case is overwhelming. It includes text messages between Shappell and Morgan Mendel.
Morgan:He drinkin it?
Stephen:Ya kinda, really just waiting for him to bend over I have shovel in my hand haha
Stephen: It's done get up here now
Kevin Mengel's body was later found in woods in Delaware County near Marple Newtown High School. .
Stephen Shappell is expected to take the stand later this week.
