ATLANTA -- Lawyers fired their opening rounds in the trial of a man charged with having his own daughter-in-law killed because of her race. Prosecutors say Chiman Rai, who is Indian, had Sparkle Rai, who is African-American, murdered in Union City.

Prosecutors contend 69-year-old Chiman Rai was so enraged over his son's marriage to a black woman that he paid $10,000 to have her killed.

In April 2000, 22-year-old Sparkle Michelle Rai was found stabbed and strangled in her apartment, just steps away from her 7-month-old daughter, who was unharmed.

The case went unsolved until two witnesses came forward in 2004 and identified Cleveland Clark as the killer.

According to a 2006 indictment, Rai teamed up with Willie Fred Evans to serve as middlemen, and they soon passed the money to brothers Cleveland and Carl Clark .

Carl Clark drove the pair to Georgia from Mississippi and Cleveland Clark carried out the killing, prosecutors say.

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Chiman Rai, a native of India, brought his family to the U.S. in 1970. He taught math at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, a historically black university, later ran a supermarket and then bought a hotel in Louisville, Ky. where he hired Sparkle Michelle Rai as a clerk.

She fell in love with his son, Ricky, and the two were wed. Both sides agree that Chiman Rai disapproved. They disagree whether it was because of race.

Defense attorney Don Samuel said Clark murdered Sparkle Rai because he thought she had drugs. "He wanted money, he wanted drugs, and when he didn't get it, he killed Sparkle Rai," Samuel said Monday.

The state has two witnesses who they say will link Chiman Rai to the killer. The defense said they will attack those witnesses. "Statements from two of the most unbelieveable witnesses who will ever walk into a court," said Samuel.