NORWICH – The prosecution’s case against accused murderer Peter Wlasiuk continued Tuesday, with Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride calling a pair of witnesses whose testimony included allegations of violence between the defendant and his wife, Patricia Wlasiuk, less than a year before her death on April 3, 2002.
Charged with second degree murder, a class A-1 felony, Wlasiuk has twice been convicted of the crime – in 2003 and 2008. Both convictions were successfully appealed, in 2006 and 2011, respectively.
According to the prosecution, Wlasiuk killed his wife at their Oxford home, later engineering an automobile accident at Guilford Lake to hide the crime. In his defense, Wlasiuk has said he and his wife were travelling east in his 1998 GMC pick-up truck on County Road 35 in the Town of Guilford when she swerved to miss a deer and swerved into the lake.
Wlasiuk later changed his story, telling authorities Patricia drove into the lake on purpose as the couple argued. According to McBride, both stories are false, and Wlasiuk’s motives were simple: an unhappy marriage, an extra-marital relationship and an attempt to collect on a $100,000 life insurance policy Wlasiuk had purchased for his wife less than a year before her death.
First to take the stand on Tuesday was Darlene Kellogg, a friend of the couple’s who described Patricia as “happy-go-lucky” and “a good friend.”
The two talked frequently – particularly by phone during Patricia’s last few months – said Kellogg, who added, “At first they seemed happy.”
In November of 2001, however, Kellogg was shown a cowboy boot-shaped bruise on Patricia’s chest. Peter Wlasiuk, she said, wore such boots “all the time.”
Patricia was in tears at the time, and Kellogg said she did her best to calm her down. She said Peter later admitted to kicking his wife in the chest. According to Kellogg, the Wlasiuks frequently fought, including an argument over Peter not coming home on Easter in 2002 – which fell on March 31 that year – just days before he allegedly killed his wife. The argument, testified Kellogg, involved Patricia’s jealousy of Joyce Worden, whom prosecutors say had an extra-marital relationship with Wlasiuk.
Kellogg’s daughter, Kari Kellogg, who babysat for the couple, echoed her mother’s testimony, and said she was also shown the bruise on Patricia’s chest. In defense lawyer Mark Loughran’s cross examination of her mother, the elder Kellogg testified there was “no mistaking” the shape of a boot print on Patricia’s chest.
Additional testimony on Tuesday included that of former Chenango County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Sheriff Gerald Parry, the department’s photographer and evidence technician in April of 2002, who identified a number of photos for both the prosecution and the defense. Those photos included images of the Guilford Lake shoreline where the incident took place, as well as the Wlasiuks’ New Virginia Road home and the pick-up truck, before and after it was impounded.
Tonya Shoales, a Chenango County Sheriff’s Office Corrections Officer at the time of the incident, also testified, stating that she heard Wlasiuk – while incarcerated at the correctional facility – tell his mother, “If I’d thought about what I did before I did it, I would not be in jail.”
If convicted, Wlasiuk could face up to 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.