Of all the strange twists in the first-degree murder trial of Monique Lee for the slaying of her landlord, this one might be the most bizarre - and potentially destructive to prosecutors' case.

Gary Lee took the stand in the retrial of his sister and gave a vastly different account from his testimony at her first trial.

In his original account, Lee testified that he held Omaha businesswoman Karen Jenkins' legs while Monique strangled her with a vacuum cleaner cord.

That account seemed to line up with Monique Lee's own statements in a phone call with her sister and in sessions with a psychiatrist in which she said she had strangled Jenkins with the cord.

But in testimony this week, Gary Lee claimed that his sister had gotten into a skirmish with Jenkins in which she punched Jenkins. Gary Lee said he then strangled Jenkins with the vacuum cleaner cord - and bashed her head into the floor to kill her.