PALERMO (AP) - A trial is scheduled to begin for a central New York couple whose 11-year-old daughter lived in deplorable conditions before she was slain last summer.

Lindsey and Lynn Maxwell went on trial Tuesday night in Palermo Town Court for child-endangerment charges filed after their daughter Erin Maxwell was strangled last August in the family's Oswego County home.

Police say the girl was killed by her 27-year-old stepbrother, Alan Jones. He faces a murder trial in September.

The Maxwells are accused of forcing Erin to live in filthy conditions that authorities say included piles of animal feces from the more than 100 cats living in the home.

The parents have said she accidentally hung herself, suggesting that she might have been imitating a scene from one of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films.