Man with North Texas ties held in killing of Colombian DJ whose body was found in luggage

The initial court hearings in the case of a man who has lived in Plano and is charged in connection with the asphyxia death last week of his girlfriend in Colombia have been beset by problems.

A court translator was forced to resign because she relayed statements in substandard English, and a defense lawyer who represented defendant John Poulos determined that he would no longer work the case after receiving death threats, reported The City Paper, an English language news organization.

Poulos, 35, was charged with femicide, obstruction and concealment of evidence in the Jan. 22 death of Valentina Trespalacios. The victim worked as a disc jockey in Bogotá. Some news accounts of her death report that she was 23; others report that she was 21.

Trespalacios was strangled inside an apartment building in Bogotá. Poulos beat her with his fists, a prosecutor has said.

Poulos is a native of Wisconsin, and public records indicate that he has lived there and in Florida. News organizations reported that he most recently lived in North Texas.

Poulos left Colombia in the hours after he is accused of placing a suitcase that held Trespalacios’ body in a garbage container near an airport.

Poulos was en route to Montenegro, a country that does not have an extradition agreement with Colombia. He was arrested in Panama and returned to Colombia.

“The fact that Poulos has not been able to find a trustworthy defense attorney for whatever reasons, either financial or because he did not find a bilingual lawyer — an implausible situation — the state has guaranteed his technical defense through the public defender’s office,” a judge said at a hearing, The City Paper reported.