The long awaited trial in a 22-year-old murder case has begun at the Orange County Courthouse in Goshen. Edward Holley, 44, has been fighting murder charges since his arrest in 2023, almost exactly 20 years after the body of his ex-girlfriend, Megan McDonald, was found near his Town of Wallkill home. Her face was caved in and her jaws were broken, the prosecution said. In her opening statement, special prosecutor Julia Cornachio's team said they plan to question a long line of McDonald's relatives, friends and colleagues about her relationship with Holley. Cornachio was named special prosecutor when Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler recused himself from the case. Hoovler stepped aside because he once represented a man who was connected to the case back when Hoovler was a private attorney. Cornachio said her team will prove Holley lied to investigators about his whereabouts the night McDonald was killed. Holley is accused of bludgeoning McDonald to death in her car in March 2003. Holley was charged in 2023 after a series of voluntary interviews with investigators over several years. The defense told the jury "not to be fooled" by the prosecution's "parade" of more than 40 witnesses. Defense lead Paul Weber mentioned two New York State Police detectives who were put on the case in 2017. Weber contends the newly assigned detectives cleared other potential suspects and unfairly zeroed in on Holley without any new evidence. Holley's friends and family, seated just behind the defense's table, nodded in agreement. "At this pace, it's going to take a very long time," Weber said during a short recess Monday morning, "but we're going to let the evidence speak for itself, and then we're going to on from there." The first witness was McDonald's mother, Betty Jo McDonald. Prosecutor Laura Murphy called on Betty Jo McDonald to help establish a timeline and discuss some of Megan's relationship history. Prosecutors were not immediately available Monday for comment on this story. The trial is expected to last a month, and could include testimony from more than 100 witnesses.