Monday marked the first day of a D.C. Superior Court trial of a man charged with the 2017 murder of a contract worker at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.

Corrina Mehiel, 34, was found tied up and fatally stabbed in her Northeast D.C. apartment nearly two years ago. A rising artist who utilized sculptures, photography and film to speak out about social justice issues, Mehiel was working at the Corcoran to assist a professor with a project focusing on the impact of childhood lead poisoning.

Monday’s opening statements and initial testimony recapped the crime and established arguments both from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the public defenders of 29-year-old El Hadji Alpha Madiou Toure. Toure, who was arrested about a week after Mehiel’s body was found, is charged with multiple offenses, including first-degree murder, sexual assault and burglary, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Toure, who faces life in prison without parole, was found competent to stand trial in September 2017.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Nestler told jurors Monday that Toure did not know Mehiel and forcibly entered her apartment, sexually assaulting her before killing her. He said Toure originally intended to rob Mehiel, and after her death, he used her bank card at several local ATMs and put a down payment on a Ford Taurus, The Post reported.

His DNA was discovered at the scene of the crime and on Mehiel’s body, according to The Post.

But defense attorney Emily Stirba denied that Toure committed the crime, arguing instead that Mehiel’s killing mirrored that of another attack about two weeks prior in which a victim was also sexually assaulted and bound. She said Toure had an alibi for the first crime, and officials moved too quickly to arrest Toure amid pressure from the media, The Post reported.

She added that there was no connection between the use of Mehiel’s bank card and her murder, according to The Post.

Mehiel’s family members were also present, and some shed tears as the judge played the recording of a 911 call from artist Mel Chin, then the Corcoran’s first William Wilson Corcoran visiting professor of community engagement, who supervised Mehiel and found her body, The Post reported.

Her father, Ronald, testified Monday that his daughter had hoped to use her undergraduate and graduate degrees in art to inspire social change, according to The Post.