A woman accused of deliberately driving off a cliff in Hawaii and killing her identical twin had dressed up in her dead sister’s clothes and flirted with her boyfriend shortly after the fatal crash, a court has heard.
Alexandria Duval, 39, is currently standing trial in a Maui court over the 2016 death of her sister Anastasia.
She is accused of driving her SUV off a cliff and killing Anastasia moments after witnesses saw them arguing as they drove along a winding highway. Alexandria survived the 200-feet plunge.
Anastasia Duval’s boyfriend Federico Bailey testified in court on Tuesday on the second day of the murder trial, revealing details of Alexandria’s behavior in the days after the crash.
Alexandria Duval and her defense attorney Birney Bervar listen to testimony for her murder trial on Monday in Hawaii. She has pleaded not guilty to killing her twin Anastasia in 2016
‘She began cuddling up on me, it seemed like she was flirting with me… she sat down beside me really close and lay her head on my shoulder,’ Bailey said.
‘She put on Anastasia’s clothes. I started talking to her about what happened, she avoided answering any of my questions.
‘When I saw her in Anastasia’s dress it was disturbing. Anastasia had just worn that dress a few nights earlier.’
Bailey, who had been living with the twins, told the court he was on a camping trip with the sisters at the time.
He said the twins started arguing after Alexandria showed up unexpectedly on their trip.
Bailey told the court the two sisters drove off, still fighting, while he was in the bathroom.
Alexandria (right) is charged with second-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty to killing her twin Anastasia (left) in 2016
Alexandria and Anastasia Duval were seen arguing on the narrow, winding Hana Highway on the island of Maui before their SUV plunged 200 feet over a cliff in 2016
Witnesses also described seeing the women fighting and pulling each other’s hair as they drove on the highway in the lead up to the crash.
Joseph Toleafoa, 17, said he saw the SUV stopped in the middle of the road with its hazard lights on.
‘First they were arguing. It escalated,’ he said, according to the Maui News.
He said he saw ‘a lot of gestures, like they were going at it’ and ‘hair-pulling and punching’.
Toleafoa told the court that he heard the engine of the SUV rev before it ‘sped up and then it jerked to the left’ before plunging over the cliff.
Maui resident Chad Smith testified on Monday that while the women were passing him on the highway he could see them arguing.
Smith, who was headed to a church, said he couldn’t hear anything but the women looked angry. He said he had to swerve out of their way.
Alexandria, pictured in court in 2016, has opted to have a judge instead of a jury decide the murder case
The sisters, born Alison and Ann Dadow in Utica, New York operated popular yoga studios in Florida before they changed their names and moved to Hawaii in 2015
Alexandria was arrested following the crash, but a judge later ordered her released after finding no probable cause for a murder charge.
She traveled to upstate New York and was arrested again months later in Albany after a grand jury indicted her.
Alexandria has opted to have a judge instead of a jury decide the case. The judge is expected to reach a verdict this week.
The sisters, born Alison and Ann Dadow in Utica, New York operated popular yoga studios in Florida before they changed their names.
They moved to Hawaii in 2015 from Utah.