Testimony begins in trial for man accused in failed murder-suicide plot, kidnapping estranged wife

TAMPA, Fla. - On the first day of testimony in the Trevor Summers trial, prosecutor Jennifer Johnson described him as obsessed and controlling when it came to his estranged wife Alisa Summers. 

"Between March 11, 2017 and March 13, 2017 Alisa Summers thought she was living out the last few days of her life," Johnson said. "She believed that the defendant, Trevor Summers, was going to kill her."

Prosecutors said the two were headed towards a bitter divorce. After Alisa filed an injunction against Trevor Summers, he refused to stay away. 

He's accused of tricking his daughter Arden, who was 14 years old at the time, into letting him inside the house through an unlocked window on March 11, 2017. He also allowed the 14-year-old to drive the other younger children away from the home in order to get alone time with their mother. 

Once inside, prosecutors said he attacked Alisa and held her against her will before kidnapping her. 

"She is hog-tied at points she is tied with Christmas tree lights, tied down to her bed," said Johnson. 

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Johnson said Trevor Summers stopped a Walgreens and that’s when Alisa, with her arms tied behind her back, tried to get away.

Randal Crosby, who was working at Walgreens at the time, witnessed it all. 

"Seen and heard a woman running and screaming in the parking lot," he testified.

Crosby said he saw the woman had her hands tied as she yelled, 'Help! Help! Help! Call the police!" he recalled her saying.

He said, the man he identified as Trevor Summers forced the woman back into a car and took off. A blanket that was draped over her was left behind in the parking lot.

Prosecutors said as police closed in, Trevor Summers wrote goodbye letters to his five children and tried to kill Alisa twice, by choking her and nearly smothering her to death. 

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"He pushes so long and so hard she loses consciousness," explained Johnson. 

He then tried to slash his own throat just before he was arrested. 

Defense attorney Anthony Marchese painted the Summers’ family as broken with five innocent children caught in the middle of it. 

"These poor children that have to go through this tumultuous divorce and when things get out of hand the children always suffer," said Marchese.

Marchese also claimed some of Alisa's story doesn't add up. He said during her alleged kidnapping, surveillance video from a restaurant shows her free of restraints, even sharing a meal with Trevor Summers.

Alisa Summers is expected to be the prosecution’s star witness.