NORWICH – The fate of Peter M. Wlasiuk will be placed in the hands of a jury this afternoon.
The defense rested its case Wednesday and closing arguments began at 8:30 a.m. today, starting with Defense Attorney Randel Scharf followed by District Attorney Joseph McBride.
Wlasiuk took the stand in his own defense at his first trial 2002, but decided not to testify at the current trial.
Broome County Judge Martin E. Smith said the jury will receive direction before their deliberation that the case against Wlasiuk is based on circumstantial evidence. “This court views this as a wholly circumstantial case,” said Smith, noting that there were no direct witnesses to the alleged murder.
Peter Wlasiuk was arrested on April 8, 2002 in the death of his wife Patricia, and a Chenango County jury convicted him of second degree murder in November of the same year. His conviction was overturned by the New York State Appellate Division in August 2006, citing “a litany of errors” that effectively deprived the defendant of a fair trial.
Wlasiuk, 39, is again charged with second degree murder in the death of his wife, whom he claims drowned in a Guilford Lake truck accident. Prosecutors say Wlasiuk suffocated his wife at their home in Oxford and staged the accident.
If convicted, Wlasiuk could be sentenced up to 25 years to life in state prison. He had received the maximum sentence after his first trial in 2002.
Yesterday morning, Scharf called pathologist Dr. Michael Sikirica, the Rensselaer County medical examiner, to counter the earlier testimony of the prosecution’s two forensic pathologists, Dr. James Terzian and Dr. Michael Baden.
Sikirica became involved in the case in 2005 after being contacted by Joyce Worden, Wlasiuk’s baby-sitter who was involved in a sexual relationship with the Wlasiuks prior to the incident. Worden testified at Wlasiuk’s first trial, and although on she was on the witness list, she was not called to the stand by either side this time around.
After initially receiving $200 to review the case, Sikirica has volunteered all his time in working on the defense. This trial is the first time Sikirica has ever testified for a defendant in a homicide case.
“I will continue to make my services available to Mr. Wlasiuk, who I believe was convicted on insufficient evidence,” said Sikirica, referring to the original trial in which the defense called no pathologist of its own to testify.
Sikirica testified that the slides taken of Patricia Wlasiuk’s lung tissue showed damage often consistent with drowning. The doctor also said he had “a difference of opinion” from his “credible colleagues,” saying, “In my opinion, there is not enough medical evidence to conclude the event was a homicide.”
Sikirica admitted that some of the injuries Patricia Wlasiuk received were suspicious and could be attributed to a violent confrontation; however he was quick to point out that there was no conclusive evidence that there was such an incident.
Sikirica also stated that a smothering death is as challenging to determine as a drowning death. “That is a very difficult diagnosis ... typically a diagnosis of exclusion,” he said.
Sikirica told the jury of eight women and four men that he had no doubt that Patricia had drowned.
After hearing closing arguments and the judge’s charge, the jury is expected to begin deliberations this afternoon. In the event that the jury returns with a verdict in the case today, it will be reported on The Evening Sun’s website, www.evesun.com.