LAS VEGAS — Against Reno's backdrop of casinos and neon, Darren and Charla Mack cut a glamorous figure.

A darkly handsome former bodybuilder, Darren Mack earned millions running his family's downtown pawn shop. Charla was a head-turning brunette who had briefly acted in Hollywood. They drove luxury cars and lived in an enormous Tudor-style house with a man-made lake in the backyard.

Their sex life was equally over-the-top. It was a poorly kept secret that the Macks were swingers.

But when the marriage faltered after a decade, the sexual appetites and money that had kindled the relationship quickly became fuel for an acrimonious divorce. Bitter fights over the couple's substantial assets and custody arrangements for their young daughter led to accusations of mental illness, sexual excesses, and judicial bias. Ultimately, authorities say, it ended in one murder and a daring attempt at a second.

Darren Mack, 46, goes on trial this week in Las Vegas for the June 2006 stabbing death of Charla and the sniper-style shooting of the judge presiding over the divorce.

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The brazen daylight attack on the judge and the international manhunt for Mack that followed generated national headlines, and the 200,000 residents of Reno remained riveted long after his surrender in Mexico.

The intense local media coverage of the case led a judge two weeks ago to move the trial from Reno to Las Vegas. The jury pool in the town nicknamed The Biggest Little City in the World had simply consumed too many news reports to decide the case fairly, the judge concluded.

That change of venue was the latest attempt to ensure Mack a fair trial. Special prosecutors from Las Vegas were appointed after the local district attorney, an acquaintance of Darren Mack and a sounding board for his rants about his divorce, recused himself. Every Washoe County judge was disqualified from hearing any aspect of the case because one of their colleagues, Family Court Judge Chuck Weller, was a target.

The trial that will unfold in District Court Judge Douglas Herndon's courtroom over the next month is expected to shed light on how a sad but not unusual story — love that grew into hate — became something much darker.

Mack has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. In e-mails he wrote to the district attorney while on the lam, he suggested that Weller's treatment of him and other fathers in court forced his hand. This week, his lawyers indicated they may claim insanity only as a defense to the judge's shooting and argue self-defense in the killing of Charla Mack.

His attorneys have indicated Mack is likely to take the stand.

Charla Mack had been married to Darren Mack for 10 years before she was found dead in his garage.

The Mack divorce proceedings, which began in 2005 when Charla Mack filed to end their marriage, quickly became ugly. She sought child support, the family home and alimony from Mack, whose net worth had been estimated the previous year at close to $10 million.

In court papers, Darren Mack implied that his wife was unfit to care for their then-7-year-old child or maintain the home, alleging that Charla "suffers from mental or emotional disorder(s) and as a consequence is subject to wide mood swings, from rage to bouts of incessant crying."

She accused him of using their joint assets to take girlfriends on trips and attend swinger events. He countered that she had threatened him with violence. He also noted that his mother had filed suit against her for allegedly stealing expensive jewelry, items she claimed were gifts.

After several months, Weller issued a decision. The couple would share custody of their daughter, with Darren Mack paying nearly $900 a month in child support. He further ordered Mack, who had a reported monthly income of $44,000, to pay Charla $1 million. About half the money would be a lump sum to buy a car and a house, and the remainder would be paid out to her in monthly increments of $10,000.

Darren Mack was furious with Weller's decision. He complained to friends and even griped about the judge to his longtime acquaintance, District Attorney Richard Gammick. Mack refused to hand over the money even when threatened with contempt. He filed for bankruptcy, and in June 2006, more than a year after the divorce proceedings began, the sides had yet to finalize the agreement.