SAN DIEGO -- A preliminary hearing began Tuesday in the case of Kristin Rossum, the toxicologist accused of poisoning her husband and scattering rose petals around his lifeless body.

Rossum (pictured, left) sat quietly, took notes and occasionally wiped away tears as witnesses testified about the night her husband died, 10News reported.

Paramedics found Greg de Villers unconscious, next to the couple's bed, with red rose petals scattered about in a scene recalling a dream sequence from the movie, "American Beauty."

On the first day of the hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to try Rossum, paramedics and a university police detective testified about what they saw at the couple's apartment.

"We found the victim lying on the floor on the right side of the bed surrounded by rose petals," said paramedic Sean Jordan, who was first on the scene of the November 2000 death of Gregory de Villers.

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Rossum's Preliminary Hearing

The defendant was described as "visibly shaking, crying, in a state of shock" by one police officer.

An emergency medical technician said at first that Rossum was just "a little distraught," but later agreed that she was "hysterical."

De Villers' brother, Jerome, presented a recording of a conversation Tuesday that he had with Rossum three days after the death.

Rossum told paramedics, investigators and relatives that her husband took a lethal combination of sedatives and cough syrup. She did not believe her husband had reason to intentionally kill himself, she said.

"It was accidental," Rossum told Jerome de Villers in the recorded conversation. "Don't you understand? I am grieving too. I am just as confused as you. I don't know all the answers."

Jerome de Villers said he made the recording in an effort to unravel the mystery of the death of his brother, whom he said had been happy and healthy just days before.

"Something was obviously wrong, in my mind, and still is," he said Tuesday.

It was not clear whether Rossum had been aware of the recording. In court, she cried when she heard herself sobbing on the tape.

Prosecutors say that Rossum killed de Villers by giving him an overdose of the powerful painkiller fentanyl, which she allegedly took from the medical examiner's office.

She was arrested in June and is being held without bail. Rossum is accused of murder and the special circumstance of murder by poisoning, which could have her face the death penalty.

In the recording, she denied giving drugs to her husband and acknowledged it would be unusual for him to take drugs.

Prosecutors say Rossum tried to make the death look like a suicide and note that she had been having an affair with her supervisor at the medical examiner's office, Michael Robertson.

Detective Sgt. Robert Jones, of the university police, said investigators grew suspicious of the death when one of Rossum's co-workers told them about the affair.

"In my estimation, it would provide a motive for something other than suicide," Jones said.

Jones testified that on the evening of de Villers' death, Rossum accompanied her husband's body to the hospital. She then returned to the apartment accompanied by Robertson.

Investigators also said they found a shredded love letter from Robertson to Rossum. Rossum told police that her husband had grown upset after discovering the note a few days before his death.

The defendant's father, Ralph Rossum, previously called de Villers (pictured, right, with Kristin) obsessive and suffocating. According to the father-in-law, a charming exterior hid a dark side to de Villers' personality.

"We admired and respected him, but while there was that very lovely side to him, there was a dark side, coming on strong, and the man we saw the last six months was not the man who won Kristin's heart or our blessing for the wedding," Ralph Rossum said.

None of the attorneys involved in the case would speak Tuesday, but a former cellmate of Rossum said that she would be absolutely surprised, amazed and shocked to find out that Rossum had anything to do with de Villers' death.

The preliminary hearing in San Diego Superior Court was expected to continue through Friday.