FARGO - The attorney for a man accused of killing and dismembering a friend and scattering his body along the Wisconsin-Michigan border says prosecutors are basing their case on someone who changed her story.

Dennis Gaede has pleaded not guilty to murder in the December 2001 disappearance and death of Timothy Wicks, 48, of Hales Corners, Wis.

"Their case is going to rise and fall entirely on the testimony of one person. And she's not to be believed," Gaede's attorney, Steve Mottinger, said in opening statements to jurors Tuesday.

Authorities said Gaede's former wife, Diana Fruge, witnessed Wicks' killing in late 2001. Prosecutors said Gaede stole Wicks' identity, then brought him to a house in Gardner, north of Fargo, that he had bought using Wicks' name.

Wicks' decapitated body was found Jan. 2, 2002, near the Michigan side of the Menominee River, along the Wisconsin state line. His head was found about 35 miles away in the same river, near Niagara, Wis.

Prosecutors said Fruge originally said she shot Wicks in the stomach with a shotgun, but authorities found no shotgun wounds. Fruge eventually acknowledged that Gaede shot Wicks in the head and then suffocated him, they said.

Assistant Cass County State's Attorney Mark Boening said Gaede has a "very powerful, very compelling personality," and was well-liked by co-workers.

"Nobody had an inkling whatsoever that he was anyone other than who he said he was," Boening said.

The prosecutor pointed to Gaede, standing within inches of his face, and said, "This man, Dennis Gaede, killed Tim Wicks."

Mottinger said prosecutors had no proof of that.

"There's no physical evidence to support Diana Gaede's testimony that a crime was committed in Cass County. Absolutely none," he said.

The murder charge is a Class AA felony, carrying a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole. A jury of eight women and six men, including two alternates, are hearing the case before Judge Steven McCullough.

Gaede served four years in prison for embezzling about $10,000 from a Fargo company where he worked under Wicks' name.

Witnesses said Wicks, a painter and musician, was last seen loading drums into a truck with Gaede and had told neighbors the two were going on a trip. Boening said Gaede told Wicks he had found him a job with a band in Winnipeg.

"Tim's passion in life was to be a drummer," Boening said.

Gaede was arrested in March 2002, in Lincoln, Neb.

Fruge testified on Tuesday that she lied about killing Wicks because she loved Gaede at the time. She decided to tell the truth after the two broke up, she said.

Fruge recalled the night Wicks was killed, but had trouble with some of the events after that because she said she was drinking heavily.