SANTA CLARITA / ANTELOPE VALLEY : Martial Arts Expert Called Innocent : Murder: Attorney believes that bloodstain on clothing of victim, also a tae kwon do expert, will exonerate his client.

The attorney for a martial arts instructor accused of killing and sexually assaulting a co-worker as she walked home along a dark Santa Clarita road said Wednesday that he will prove during the trial that someone else committed the murder.

Attorney Darryl Mounger said that he will rely on a scientific analysis of a small bloodstain found on the victim’s clothing to prove Stuart Edward Milburn, 27, did not kill Veronica Estrada, 29. Mounger said he believes the assailant was injured in a struggle with Estrada and bled on her workout pants.

“The most important thing is that it’s not Milburn’s . . . it is probably the killer’s,” he said.

Jury selection in Milburn’s trial began Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. Prosecutors accuse him of killing Estrada out of professional jealousy because she earned competitive honors he felt he deserved.

“We have quite a number of people who will testify to the professional animosity between them,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Foltz during a hearing Wednesday.

Foltz dismissed the bloodstain on Estrada’s pants, stating the stain could have resulted earlier that evening by sparring with another person at the tae kwon do studio where she taught.

Estrada was the American Taekwondo Assn.’s top-ranked female competitor in the second-level black belt division and was named instructor of the year at Taekwondo USA in Canyon Country, where she primarily taught 5- to 8-year-old students.

She was last seen leaving the studio the night of Dec. 15, 1993. Her partly-clothed body was found the next morning in bushes alongside Soledad Canyon Road about half a mile west of the studio.

Authorities said Estrada had died of strangulation at about 8:15 p.m., possibly during or after a sexual assault.

Milburn, also a black belt in tae kwon do, is charged with first-degree murder with three special circumstances--lying in wait, forcible sodomy and attempted rape. He is in custody without bail at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

Attorneys told Judge Charles Horan on Wednesday that they have more than 80 potential witnesses who might be called to the stand during the trial, expected to take about four weeks. However, the attorneys later estimated that only about 60% of them will actually testify.

Jury selection is expected to continue today and opening statements are expected Tuesday.

The heart of the prosecution’s case is three witnesses who said they saw a man near the murder site at the time Estrada was killed, including one who saw a struggle between a man and a woman. The witness later identified Milburn as the man.

Foltz said he will discredit Milburn’s alibi--that he was at a music store next to the studio between 8 and 9 p.m. the night of the murder--by calling employees of the store and other witnesses.

Other prosecution witnesses will testify that Milburn showed a lack of remorse after the murder and that he had previously boasted that his tae kwon do skills made him “able to ‘take out’ another person in six seconds,” Foltz said.

But Mounger emphasized that no physical evidence exists against his client. Scientific tests showed the bloodstain found on Estrada’s pants was not Estrada’s or Milburn’s.

Mounger said the eyewitness identifications of his client are questionable because none of them said the man they saw had a beard--which Milburn has--when first questioned.

In addition, Mounger said, a student at the studio will testify that she saw Milburn put a Christmas card in her gym bag at about the time of the murder.