Keizer man faces trial for killing wife after murder conviction overturned

For the second time in his life, Peter Zielinski is in court, accused of shooting and killing his wife at their Keizer home in 2011.

Judge Susan Tripp presided over opening arguments Tuesday in Marion County Circuit Court.

The first time Zielinski, 47, stood in court, he pleaded guilty in 2013 to murdering Lisa Zielinski, 38. Marion County Judge Dale Penn sentenced Zielinski to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

But four years later, the Oregon Court of Appeals overturned his conviction and sent the case back to court, ruling the trial court erred in excluding expert testimony of Zielinski's anxiety disorder diagnosis, which his attorneys claimed supported an extreme emotional disturbance defense. 

In Tuesday's opening statements, defense attorney Aaron Jeffers argued Zielinski began to enter a state of desperation and was unable to control his emotions and actions.

"The evidence is going to show that Mr. Zielinski's mind was so disconnected from his actions that he...was not really thinking about what he was doing," Jeffers said. 

"Over the next two weeks, you're going to see evidence of a marriage and a man falling apart," he said. "You're going to see the effort that Mr. Zielinski made to try and lift himself up in the eyes of the woman that he loved."

Zielinski tried to arrange marriage counseling, looked for another job while working part-time at The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, and told his wife he would stop drinking, according to Jeffers. 

But Zielinski's lending company threatened to foreclose the family's house and repossess their car. He was financially dependent on his wife, all assets were in her name — besides his Porsche Boxter — and he considered filing for bankruptcy, Jeffers told the jury. 

His wife told him he "wasn't a real provider" and that he "needed to act like a man," Jeffers said. She also had an affair with a co-worker. The defense argued Zielinski drank alcohol as a means to deal with undiagnosed PTSD but was cut off from his "coping mechanism" when Lisa Zielinski asked him to stop drinking.

"You're going to learn that Lisa Zielinski would wake up to find her husband's hands around her throat," Jeffers said. "How in those moments, she would have to convince him that she was his wife."

On the morning of Jan. 12, Jeffers said Zilinski was "at wit's end."

According to Jeffers, Zelinski said:

"I leave the bathroom to get a drink of water, to see my daughter and say good morning. But I don't do that. Instead, as I'm walking past the closet, I stop. I reach up on my shelf and I grab my pistol. I turn back to the bathroom, look at her, raised it and pull the trigger. This whole time in my mind I feel like it's a dream, like I'm watching this happen. I'm seeing what's happening in my mind and I'm telling myself 'no, no don't do this' but I couldn't stop it."

Jeffers told the jury if the evidence caused them to doubt Zielinski acted intentionally they must find him not guilty of murder. If they determine he acted intentionally, he asked the jury to consider finding Zielinski guilty of first-degree manslaughter — a ruling permissible when a person commits a homicide under the influence of an extreme emotional disturbance and there is a reasonable explanation for the disturbance.  

Prosecutors argued Peter Zielinski was demeaning and controlling. 

"Lisa Zielinski was done...she wanted a divorce from Peter Zielinski and he just wasn't getting it," state prosecutor Brendan Murphy told jurors in his opening statement. "He couldn't comprehend that he had lost the ability to control his wife."

The evidence will show that this case is not a who-done-it, Murphy said. "This case, you hear, will be a lot of excuses, but not a single reason. On January 12, 2011, the defendant committed murder. The state is going to ask you to find him guilty..."

The state called witness Lt. Andrew Copeland, Sgt. Carrie Anderson and officer Timothy Lathrop with the Keizer Police Department  Copeland and Anderson spoke with Zielinski after he made a call to 911 dispatchers at the police department lobby to report his wife needed an ambulance. Copeland said Zelinski was shaking and his eyes were wide when he approached him. 

Zielinski's longtime friend Cory Smith testified and said he received a call from Zielinski after he shot his wife. Smith told his friend to call an ambulance and turn himself in. 

Previously, the Court of Appeals opinion detailed testimony the trial court excluded:

Zielinski told a court-appointed psychologist that his wife had asked for a divorce. After going through her email and text messages, Zielinski discovered she was having an affair with a co-worker. He told the psychologist this made him feel "physically ill" and that he "literally wanted to die."

The day before he killed his wife, Zielinski said he grabbed his gun and pointed it at his head but stopped himself because he didn't want his young daughter to find his body. 

According to court records, he told Lisa Zielinski he loved her when she came home late that night. She acted dismayed. The next day, she shook her head in disgust when he tried to hug her. 

He told the psychologist he felt "weak and spineless." He went to the bathroom to get a drink of water but instead went to his closet and grabbed his gun.

His psychologist diagnosed him with adjustment disorder, anxiety disorder, alcohol abuse and narcissistic personality traits. 

The trial continues Wednesday.