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Judge: Evidence of prior bad acts will be allowed in sword-slaying trial."Hulk smash." Kiara McCulley told police that was the best way she could describe what her fiance, Isaac Apodaca, did to her during an April 2022 altercation that left her with softball-sized bruises from head to foot.Police charged Apodaca with several crimes but McCulley later called the First Judicial District Attorney's Office to say she wanted the case dropped, Deputy District Attorney Haley Murphy said Thursday in state District Court in Santa Fe."We now know he was present in the room at the time telling her to drop that case," Murphy said.Apodaca stands accused of first-degree murder in connection with the Oct.29, 2022, death of 21-year-old Grace Jennings.McCulley pleaded guilty in 2025 to second-degree murder in Jennings' death, admitting she was the one that wielded the sword, repeatedly stabbing and nearly decapitating Jennings.However, prosecutors say Apodaca made her do it, using his intimate knowledge of McCulley's mental instability and triggers to coerce her via text message to kill Jennings.Evidence of a defendant's prior bad acts usually isn't allowed at trial, based on the idea that a jury should decide a person's guilt or innocence on the facts of a case and not on anything the person may have done in the past.However state District Judge T.Glenn Ellington ruled during a pretrial motions hearing Thursday prosecutors will be allowed to tell jurors in Apodaca's murder trial — which is set to take place in early July — about the 2022 domestic violence case.The information, he held, is relevant to the state's theory that Apodaca exercised enough control over McCulley to get her to do things that were not in her own best interest.Apodaca's defense attorney Jay Nair objected, arguing it was just a clever attempt to get the evidence in through a "back door." The judge also ruled — over Nair's objections — that prosecutors can introduce evidence Apodaca had benefitted from sex work McCulley performed in the past.In addition to possibly letting Apodaca keep some of the money she made, Murphy said, McCulley also performed sex work to buy things they needed such as cigarettes and pizza.The information could potentially help jurors understand the complicated relationship between Apodaca, McCulley and Jennings, the judge held.The exact nature of that relationship isn't clear.Prosecutors have said Apodaca and McCulley had both dated Jennings in the past.Jennings' mother has vehemently denied her daughter ever had a relationship with Apodaca.Alleged manipulation According to a criminal complaint, McCulley told police she had been the victim of a gang rape in 2016 and claimed Jennings witnessed the incident.Police confirmed a sexual assault was reported in 2020 “but not with the details that she claimed during her interview.” According to prosecutors, Apodaca set the events that led to Jennings' death into motion by inviting her to spend the night with him and McCulley in the converted garage in McCulley's mother's home where they lived — without telling McCulley.He then used what he knew about McCulley and her feelings about Jennings to convince McCulley to kill her, according to prosecutors.Text messages police found on Apodaca's phone indicated he and McCulley were "conspiring to kill Ms.Jennings while she was asleep," according to a criminal complaint."In several of the messages Mr.Apodaca is appearing to try to convince [McCulley] to kill [Jennings]," the complaint states."I want you to kill her.You have to end your suffering by ending her joy," one of the message stated, according to the document.McCulley told police Apodaca was in charge of a secret organization called Ghost, which gets rid of people who participate in sex crimes or hurt children.She said Apodaca told her she would rise in the organization’s ranks if she killed Jennings.Police discovered Jennings' body after Apodaca and his mother called police to say he had discovered his fiancee had killed a woman in the detached garage.Apodaca told police he went to the main house to use the bathroom in the morning and returned minutes later to find Jennings dead.Pretrial publicity McCulley told police she was upset Apodaca invited Jennings to stay over, according to the criminal complaint, but could not remember a period of time the next morning.She told police she believed this was due to her undiagnosed multiple personality disorder.“McCulley stated she was partially hopeful Ms.Jennings was dead but could not remember what happened to her,” the complaint states.A judge initially found McCulley incompetent to stand trial and ordered she be treated at the Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas N.M.She was reevaluated and deemed competent in 2023, about two years before entering her guilty plea.McCulley's plea deal calls for her to be sentenced to 30 years in prison after testifying against Apodaca, whose trial is scheduled to start July 8.The court will likely call two panels of potential jurors for jury selection June 30, Ellington said.The parties expressed concerns about being able to find enough jurors who lack knowledge of the case, which has drawn national attention, with much of the focus being on the bizarre nature of the alleged love triangle between Apodaca, McCulley and Jennings.Several posts about the case, including some featuring police body camera footage of the garage where Jennings was killed, have gone viral, according to statements made in court.Murphy suggested the court consider instructing jurors not only to avoid media accounts of the case but to stay off social media until they've delivered a verdict.