NORWICH – Day seven of the Wlasiuk murder trial found the prosecution focusing its attention on the burdocks located in alleged homicide victim Patricia Wlasiuk’s hair – and on her clothing – as well as the burdock plants discovered outside her Oxford residence.
Her husband, Peter Wlasiuk, is charged with second degree murder – a class A-1 felony – in Patricia’s death, which Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride has alleged took place at the couple’s New Virginia Road home in April of 2002. According to Wlasiuk, the couple was traveling east along County Road 35 in the Town of Guilford when his wife swerved to miss a deer, losing control of Wlasiuk’s 1998 GMC pick-up truck and veering into Guilford Lake, where she drowned.
Wlasiuk later changed his story, stating Patricia had purposely driven into the lake as the couple argued. He has twice been convicted of the crime, although both convictions have been successfully appealed, in 2006 and 2011, respectively.
Dr. Julian Shepherd, an associate professor of biology at Binghamton University, took the stand Monday, testifying that he found no burdocks along the lake’s shoreline, which he searched just days after the April 3, 2002 incident. According to Shepherd, he searched approximately 100 yards of shoreline, both east and west of the pick-up truck’s entry point into the water.
Said Shepherd, “I did not find any burdocks.”
He went on to tell the jury that, “by no means,” can burdocks be found – or grow – underwater.
The Wlasiuks’ Oxford home, however, is another story, and the prosecution has offered up photographic evidence of broken burdock branches there, including one alleged to have strands of Patricia’s hair entwined on it. Burdocks were also found on Peter Wlasiuk’s boots, on the floor of the pick-up truck’s cab and on several pieces of Patricia’s clothing.
Shepherd was shown a number of photos, as well as physical burdock specimens, for identification. Each inspection ended with Shepherd confirming that the specimens contained therein were indeed burdocks.
During his cross examination, Wlasiuk’s attorney, Mark Loughran, questioned whether burdocks may have been displaced by the truck’s entry into the lake. When shown several defense exhibits – photos of the shoreline at Guilford Lake – Shepherd admitted he could not identify all the plants pictured, but was “confident” there were no burdocks in the area.
Additional testimony on Monday included that of Donald Beckwith, a self-employed life insurance agent who delivered the life insurance policy purchased by the couple in October of 2001. He testified that – following Patricia’s death – Wlasiuk’s “main focus” was to collect on the $100,000 policy. Wlasiuk “didn’t seem terribly upset,” he added, and “just wanted to get his money.”
Beckwith said one of the biggest problems faced by those in the insurance business is fraud, and that he’d “heard suspicious things” about Wlasiuk.
Loughran, during his cross examination of Beckwith, pointed out that the couple was required to purchase life insurance as part of their purchase of The Pillars, which they re-named The Angel Inn, and that Patricia also took out a $100,000 policy on her husband.
If convicted for a third time, Wlasiuk could face 25 years to life in state prison. He is currently being held at the Chenango County Correctional Facility.
The trial resumed at 9 a.m. today in the Chenango County Courthouse.