The lawyer for a man on trial for causing the death of a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant manager told a state jury Monday that the man’s father, who told police his son confessed to the killing, is the more likely killer.

Jhun Ley Irorita, 28, is charged with murder in connection with the death of Helen Prestosa.

Prestosa, 39, was last seen alive Nov. 19, 2015. Volunteers picking up trash off Tantalus Drive found Prestosa’s skeletal remains April 17, 2016, at the bottom of a steep embankment. The remains were wrapped in a sheet with other items missing from Prestosa’s home, including a pillow, pillowcase, blanket, television remote, shoe, clothes iron and cellphone cover.

The jurors saw video of the discovery recorded by one of the volunteers’ helmet camera.

The Honolulu Medical Examiner determined that Prestosa died from whatever caused the fractures to her jaw, neck and upper body.

Deputy Prosecutor Wayne Tashima told the jury that Irorita confessed to killing Prestosa to his father in the early morning of Nov. 20, 2015, and asked for his help in loading a large trash bag containing Prestosa’s body into his pickup truck. He said Irorita’s mother overheard the confession. Another state witness, a former Irorita cellmate, is expected to testify that Irorita also confessed to him that he killed Prestosa.

Deputy Public Defender Christian Enright told the jury that Irorita didn’t even know Prestosa and had no reason to kill her. And while his family’s home is one floor above Prestosa’s apartment in Kalihi, Irorita wasn’t living there.

But he said, “There is a person who had the motive to kill Helen. There is a person who had the opportunity to kill Helen. His name is Roger Rivera. And he is Jhun Ley’s father.”

Rivera was Prestosa’s landlord, giving him access to her apartment. When police searched the apartment, they found no sign of forced entry and that the apartment appeared to have been cleaned up. Using the chemical luminol, they found traces of blood, whose DNA matches Prestosa’s, on the bedroom floor and walls.

Enright also said Rivera worked as a cook in Prestosa’s restaurant and had filed a disability claim for an on-the-job injury. He said Prestosa believed the claim was fraudulent, refused to approve it and, just before she disappeared, was going to report Rivera and put him on probation.

He said Rivera lied when police first questioned him and told police his son confessed to killing Prestosa three weeks later. He also said police failed to investigate Rivera even after learning about his disability claim and his wife’s report that her husband had gone to a refuse dump at about the time Prestosa disappeared.