A jury has been selected in the Bedford County murder trial of  Wesley Earnest.

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• Trial primer: Bedford Co. murder trial set to begin
• Ruling on house fire won't be  speedy
• Former Bedford Co. school official's  trial delayed
• Police hope computer will yield clues  in Forest death
• New trial date picked in murder case  against ex-Chesapeake school official
• Bedford Co. murder suspect Earnest  gets bond
• Details come to light in Bedford  hearing
• Charges filed over '07 killing in  Forest

BEDFORD -- A former Chesapeake school administrator accused of killing his estranged wife in her Bedford County home bungled a cover-up by moving her body, a prosecutor asserted Tuesday in the first day of Wesley Earnest's murder trial.

"He made errors," Bedford County Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Wes Nance told jurors shortly after they were seated Tuesday afternoon. "He made errors before the crime, he made errors during the crime, and he made errors after the crime."

Nance -- who called the case an "age-old story of greed and love, sex and money" -- promised jurors they will hear testimony that blood patterns in the living room indicate Jocelyn Earnest's body was moved, a circumstance he said bolsters the prosecution's contention that Wesley Earnest tried to stage a fake suicide. "She was moved through a pre-existing blood trail," Nance said.

Defense attorney Joseph Sanzone, though, told jurors it's possible that the woman who found the body could have moved it.

Jocelyn Earnest, 38, was found dead in the living room of her Forest home on Dec. 20, 2007, a .357-caliber revolver between her torso and right arm, an 83-word, typewritten suicide note between her body and the front door.

Prosecutors allege that Wesley Earnest, 39, an assistant principal at Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake at the time, drove roughly 200 miles after work on Dec. 19, killed his wife and returned to Chesapeake to work at 7 a.m. the next day.

In his opening argument, Sanzone hinted obliquely that perhaps one of Jocelyn Earnest's female friends was responsible for her death, and he told jurors that Wesley Earnest never left Chesapeake after working bus duty at the school Dec. 19.

"He went home," Sanzone said. "He took a nap, he got up, he then headed out to get something for dinner, he went home, he went to bed. He had to be at work early the next day."

The Earnests had separated and planned to finalize their divorce in March of 2008. Wesley Earnest was living in Chesapeake but commuting to their jointly owned home at Smith Mountain Lake on weekends.

In his opening argument, Nance gave jurors a preview of what he said the evidence will show over the coming days: that the only fingerprint found on the suicide note was Wesley Earnest's; that the Smith & Wesson revolver belonged to Wesley Earnest, and the box it came in was found at his girlfriend's house in Campbell County; and that Wesley Earnest was the only one with a motive to kill Jocelyn Earnest. According to Nance, Wesley Earnest was more than $125,000 in debt, and if the divorce became final before the estranged couple sold their Smith Mountain Lake home, it would be sold for a price far below what he wanted.

"Wesley Earnest saw his wife as an obstacle" to his desires, Nance said.

Wesley Earnest borrowed a friend's truck in Chesapeake two days before his estranged wife's death, Nance said. Days after her body was discovered, he bought four new tires for the truck, using a fake name to make the purchase. "He was literally and figuratively covering his tracks," said Nance.

Investigators found 16 or 17 volumes of Jocelyn Earnest's journal, each of their pages filled with her handwriting. It's odd, Nance told jurors, that the suicide note was typed and printed out, especially since neither of the two printers at her home was plugged in.

Sanzone agreed there was something "fishy" about the suicide note, but he suggested that jurors pay attention to Jocelyn Earnest's two close friends, Maysa Munsey and Marcy Shepherd, who found the body. Shepherd testified at a hearing in 2008 that she and Jocelyn Earnest shared a romantic relationship, and Sanzone hinted that the three women may have been involved in some sort of relationship triangle. He told jurors that the relationship will become clearer when he has a chance to put on the defense's case.

The only witnesses to testify Tuesday were Jocelyn Earnest's mother, Joyce Young, and sister, Laura Rogers. Both testified that Jocelyn Earnest was not suicidal, but happy and eagerly awaiting the holidays to spend time with her family in Martinsburg, W.Va. "She was looking forward to it, very happy," Young testified.

The trial, scheduled for two weeks, is set to resume at 9 a.m. today.