HONOLULU -- Trial began on Tuesday for a man accused in a murder that happened nearly 15 years ago in which no body was found.

The prosecution said that the death happened during a robbery that went awry. The defense said no one was killed.

The case involves the 1992 disappearance of Ruben Gallegos.

The state said Gennaro Torres killed Gallegos, who was a cashier at the Pearl Harbor Navy Exchange.

Torres was arrested in 2005 after Navy investigators found a witness in California who said Torres confessed to her.

"He told Susan Davis that the accomplice in this case was trying to back out of the robbery, and the accomplice looked like he was going for a gun, so he took him out," deputy attorney general Susan Won said.

The defense said Gallegos was the accomplice and that he left Hawaii.

Authorities arrested Torres and searched his car on May 1, 1992, the day Gallegos vanished with $80,000 from the Navy exchange.

While authorities found the money and a weapon with spent rounds. The defense contends there will be nothing showing that Torres actually killed Gallegos thanks to testing done on his car and what was found inside.

"All these tests showed no evidence -- no blood, no gun residue, nothing," public defender Ed Harada said.

Torres' trial, featuring the prosecution's star witness and the defense's scientific evidence, is expected to take about two weeks.