Trial is set to open Monday for a man accused of killing a New Orleans’ French Quarter stripper, dismembering her, and dumping body parts of the woman into the Gulf of Mexico.

Terry Speaks is charged with second-degree murder along with former girlfriend Margaret Sanchez in the death of 24-year-old Jaren Lockhart, a Bourbon Street dancer whose remains washed ashore in Mississippi after her June 2012 disappearance.

A suburban New Orleans judge in Gretna is first expected to consider Speaks’ request to fire his public defender, John Benz, and consider what defense lawyers can say about two prosecution witnesses set to testify.

Benz’s pretrial motion said prosecutors have no evidence to show Lockhart was in Speaks’ apartment before her death.

Speaks and Sanchez have pleaded not guilty. Sanchez’s trial hasn’t been scheduled.