Jury in murder trial told of sex party at Boynton Beach motel
`After a night of drinking in June 2004, Lisa Merola and her boyfriend hooked up with Michael Trammell and his wife for a “swinger’s party” in Trammell’s tiny room at a Boynton Beach motel.
Merola disappeared the following day, prosecutor Aleathea McRoberts said, after her boyfriend reported last seeing her in Trammell’s vehicle. Merola’s partially nude body — covered with Trammell’s DNA — was found in Gulfstream Park near Boynton Beach on June 13, 2004. Authorities say Trammell strangled her. A Palm Beach County jury began hearing the second-degree murder case on Thursday.
Trammell, 34, claims that the couples engaged in various sex acts for hours that night, until Merola’s boyfriend, Greg Winterbottom, wanted to leave, McRoberts said. Winterbottom said the party ended after a brief period, when Merola became visibly repulsed by the then 460-pound Trammell, according to McRoberts.’
