Darrell Middlekauff is accused of killing his wife and burying her body in a barrel.

Prosecutors began making their case against Darrell Middlekauff in Deschutes County Circuit Court on Wednesday, laying out the first of the evidence they plan to present in a murder trial expected to last for several weeks.

Darrell Middlekauff, 48, is accused of killing his wife, Brenda, and burying her body in a metal barrel. Brenda Middlekauff was 40 when she disappeared in July 2002. Her body was discovered three years later, shot three times in the head and partially buried on private land a short distance from the Middlekauffs’ home south of Sunriver.

In late 2006, eight days before he was due to complete a prison sentence for first-degree burglary, delivering drugs and tampering with a witness, Darrell Middlekauff was arrested and charged with aggravated murder. He has been held at the Deschutes County Jail since then.

Middlekauff has opted for a non-jury trial before Judge Stephen Tiktin, ruling out the possibility of a death sentence. He could face life in prison if convicted.

In her opening statement, Deschutes County Deputy District Attorney Beth Bagely described Brenda Middlekauff as “honest, naive, vulnerable and trusting,” a “perfect victim” for Darrell Middlekauff.

Middlekauff was motivated by money, drugs and sex, Bagely said, describing how he’d spent much of the money Brenda Middlekauff had inherited from her late husband barely a year after meeting her, his methamphetamine use, and his desire to establish himself as a methamphetamine dealer.

In the weeks leading up to Brenda ‘s death, Bagely said, Darrell Middlekauff spent nearly every day with Tina Briles, a methamphetamine user with whom he had carried on an affair and had attempted to entice into a three-way sexual relationship with himself and his wife.

Bagely read from two letters sent by Darrell Middlekauff to Jennifer Michalak, a 17-year-old girl with whom he was living in late 2004, prior to his arrest on unrelated charges.

The letters, sent from prison less than a month after the discovery of Brenda Middlekauff’s body, include details on shooting Brenda in the head and wrapping a plastic bag around her head — information investigators had not released at that time.

Briles and Michalak are both scheduled to testify later in the trial.

Bagely touched briefly on a few pieces of evidence not previously made public. Hairs found on a mattress pad used to wrap the barrel in which Brenda Middlekauff was found match Darrell Middlekauff’s DNA with greater than 99 percent certainty, she said, and a handmade quilt found in the barrel matches paper patterns found in a search of the Middlekauffs’ home.

Middlekauff’s defense team, lead by attorney Duane McCabe, declined to make an opening statement, and asked few questions of the four witnesses called Wednesday. The four witnesses were Brenda Middlekauff’s sister, Rita Ege, Deschutes County Sheriff’s deputies Ronnie Dozier and Pete Penzenik, and Lisa Lazarus, the owner of the property where Brenda’s body was found.

Lazarus, appearing by phone, told the court she bought the wooded, undeveloped property in 2003, and was visiting in July 2005 to clean up the property and post “No Trespassing” signs. While walking her property, she found a plastic tarp covering a partially-buried metal barrel.

Dozier told the court Lazarus told him she’d thought about digging up the barrel, then decided against it, suspecting it could contain chemicals from a meth lab. Instead, she called the Sheriff’s Office, leading to the discovery of Brenda Middlekauff’s body.

Ege, a Missouri resident who still lives near where she and Brenda grew up, choked up while describing the quilt found with her sister’s body. Ege said she’d given the patterns for the quilt to Brenda on a prior visit, and had actively looked for the quilt when she came out to Oregon after her disappearance to try to figure out what had happened to her sister.

Ege said Darrell Middlekauff called her some time after Brenda Middlekauff’s disappearance and said she had run off with a female truck driver named Barb — a story Ege said she did not believe.

Additional witnesses will be appearing in court today. On Friday, Judge Tiktin and attorneys from the defense and prosecution will be visiting the former home of the Middlekauffs and the property where Brenda Middlekauff’s body was discovered.