Sexting, rape and murder at center of Cara Ryan murder trial

ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - It's a trial centered on sex, heartbreak and jealousy, and Wednesday marked day one of Cara Ryan's second degree murder trial.

Ryan is accused of shooting and killing her on-again, off-again lover, John ‘J.J.’ Rush - a retired St. Petersburg police officer - in March of 2015 at her home in Indian Rocks. J.J. Rush had broken up with Ryan and moved out a month before the murder. 

Assistant State Attorney Liz Jack spent opening arguments trying to paint Ryan as a crazy ex-lover, unwilling to move on.

“On March 7, 2015, she invited him over for sex,” Jack told the jury. “He accepted her invitation and, by the end of the night, he was dead.”

Ryan says Rush became angry when he discovered she was sexting with another man, and then raped her.

The state says it doesn't believe the story, because she invited him over. 

Ryan’s lawyers argued the victim was a violent drunk -- and she acted in self-defense.