Teh One Who Knocks
10-16-2013, 11:19 AM
By Daily Mail Reporter
http://i.imgur.com/H5ylxtN.jpg
A Washington state jury has convicted a man accused of strangling his wife to death in 2006 and dumping her body in the woods.
David Pietz was found guilty Monday of second-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Nicole Pietz.
Prosecutors say David Pietz, 36, tried to cover up his wife's death by reporting her missing. Her nude body was found about a week later.
During the Monday hearing, members of the victim’s family wept openly in the courtroom when the guilty verdict was announced following a day and a half of deliberations.
Pietz was arrested in March by cold case detectives who had spent six years building a case against him based largely on circumstantial evidence.
Prosecutor Kristen Richardson later told the press that in the end, the case hinged on minor clues, including Pietz's alleged affairs with at least four different woman and his wife's mouthguard, which she was wearing when her naked body was found in a wooded area near Burien, The Seattle Times reported.
During closing arguments last Thursday, Richardson told the 12 members of the jury panel that Pietz had grown tired of being married to Nicole because of her reluctance to pursue a more adventurous sex life, and was 'cold and callous.’
In the course of the trial, four women testified they had sexual relations with Pietz while he was married to Nicole.
One of the husband's alleged lovers told the court last month that the 36-year-old defendant regularly spiked his wife's drinks with ecstasy to get her to take part in threesomes.
Pietz’s defense lawyer said the defendant was wrongly accused and that prosecutors failed to establish a motive or come up with hard evidence such as DNA or witnesses to the crime.
‘Dave Pietz isn’t the first guy to step out on his spouse,’ attorney David Allen told jurors Wednesday. ‘Is it a motive to kill his wife? He had bad boundaries; he’s oversexed.’
http://i.imgur.com/4vYM02M.jpg
The defense built its case on Nicole Pietz's history of addiction to painkillers and claimed that the 32-year-old woman suffered a relapse after eight years of sobriety and disappeared while out looking to score drugs.
However, toxicology reports showed only trace amounts of prescription pills in Nicole's system and no signs of recent drug abuse.
Pietz, 36, showed little emotion beyond beads of perspiration glistening on his brow when the guilty verdict was announced at around 2pm Monday. He faces between 10 and 18 years in prison when he is sentenced at a later date.
Emotions ran high in the King County courtrhouse, where the victim's relatives and friends sobbed with relief in reaction to the verdict.
Nicole Pietz's sister Tonia Zurcher yelled out, 'You're going to burn in hell, Pietz,' as he was led out of the courtroom following his conviction.
‘I just wanted justice for my daughter and we got it,’ said Nicole’s mother, Gael Schneider. ‘These last 7 1/2 years have been torture for us.’
Miss Schneider then added, 'She'll never come back, we got justice for her, but I'll never get to hold her again,' the station KING5 reported.
For years, there were no charges brought in connection with the murder - until police arrested Pietz, 36, last year and charged him with second-degree murder thanks to advances in technology.
Detectives were initially interested in Pietz as a suspect after learning that he was unhappy in his marriage and now they say they have built a case on circumstantial evidence.
Pietz, who had been married to his wife for four years, was finally arrested earlier in March 2012 after DNA and phone GPS linked him to the crime scene, police said.
Investigators claimed there were contradictions in his statements and he failed a lie detector test before refusing to undergo a second.
Mr Pietz told police that on January 27, 2006, he got home from work around midnight and briefly said goodnight to his wife, who was already sleeping, KOMO reported after his arrest.
The next morning he said left for work at 8.30am without speaking to Nicole and had no contact with her throughout the day.
Mr Pietz told police that he called 911 when he went straight to a planned dinner with friends that night and his wife never arrived.
He claims that she must have vanished as she headed to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that morning where she was going to celebrate 8 years of sobriety. He claimed that he believed she had fallen back into her old drug habit.
However, police said that forensic tests - including undigested food in her stomach - showed that Mrs Pietz had been killed around midnight on January 27.
When her body was found, she was wearing a mouthguard she only wore at night and her wedding ring was in cleaning solution in the bathroom; friends said she only took it off at night to clean it.
Phone records also show her phone was allegedly used at her husband's workplace.
And DNA evidence showed that Mr Pietz's was the last person to drive her car, which was found two weeks after her body in a parking lot near the University of Washington.
But defense attorneys have argued that their case is weak and that there were no eyewitnesses.
http://i.imgur.com/H5ylxtN.jpg
A Washington state jury has convicted a man accused of strangling his wife to death in 2006 and dumping her body in the woods.
David Pietz was found guilty Monday of second-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Nicole Pietz.
Prosecutors say David Pietz, 36, tried to cover up his wife's death by reporting her missing. Her nude body was found about a week later.
During the Monday hearing, members of the victim’s family wept openly in the courtroom when the guilty verdict was announced following a day and a half of deliberations.
Pietz was arrested in March by cold case detectives who had spent six years building a case against him based largely on circumstantial evidence.
Prosecutor Kristen Richardson later told the press that in the end, the case hinged on minor clues, including Pietz's alleged affairs with at least four different woman and his wife's mouthguard, which she was wearing when her naked body was found in a wooded area near Burien, The Seattle Times reported.
During closing arguments last Thursday, Richardson told the 12 members of the jury panel that Pietz had grown tired of being married to Nicole because of her reluctance to pursue a more adventurous sex life, and was 'cold and callous.’
In the course of the trial, four women testified they had sexual relations with Pietz while he was married to Nicole.
One of the husband's alleged lovers told the court last month that the 36-year-old defendant regularly spiked his wife's drinks with ecstasy to get her to take part in threesomes.
Pietz’s defense lawyer said the defendant was wrongly accused and that prosecutors failed to establish a motive or come up with hard evidence such as DNA or witnesses to the crime.
‘Dave Pietz isn’t the first guy to step out on his spouse,’ attorney David Allen told jurors Wednesday. ‘Is it a motive to kill his wife? He had bad boundaries; he’s oversexed.’
http://i.imgur.com/4vYM02M.jpg
The defense built its case on Nicole Pietz's history of addiction to painkillers and claimed that the 32-year-old woman suffered a relapse after eight years of sobriety and disappeared while out looking to score drugs.
However, toxicology reports showed only trace amounts of prescription pills in Nicole's system and no signs of recent drug abuse.
Pietz, 36, showed little emotion beyond beads of perspiration glistening on his brow when the guilty verdict was announced at around 2pm Monday. He faces between 10 and 18 years in prison when he is sentenced at a later date.
Emotions ran high in the King County courtrhouse, where the victim's relatives and friends sobbed with relief in reaction to the verdict.
Nicole Pietz's sister Tonia Zurcher yelled out, 'You're going to burn in hell, Pietz,' as he was led out of the courtroom following his conviction.
‘I just wanted justice for my daughter and we got it,’ said Nicole’s mother, Gael Schneider. ‘These last 7 1/2 years have been torture for us.’
Miss Schneider then added, 'She'll never come back, we got justice for her, but I'll never get to hold her again,' the station KING5 reported.
For years, there were no charges brought in connection with the murder - until police arrested Pietz, 36, last year and charged him with second-degree murder thanks to advances in technology.
Detectives were initially interested in Pietz as a suspect after learning that he was unhappy in his marriage and now they say they have built a case on circumstantial evidence.
Pietz, who had been married to his wife for four years, was finally arrested earlier in March 2012 after DNA and phone GPS linked him to the crime scene, police said.
Investigators claimed there were contradictions in his statements and he failed a lie detector test before refusing to undergo a second.
Mr Pietz told police that on January 27, 2006, he got home from work around midnight and briefly said goodnight to his wife, who was already sleeping, KOMO reported after his arrest.
The next morning he said left for work at 8.30am without speaking to Nicole and had no contact with her throughout the day.
Mr Pietz told police that he called 911 when he went straight to a planned dinner with friends that night and his wife never arrived.
He claims that she must have vanished as she headed to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that morning where she was going to celebrate 8 years of sobriety. He claimed that he believed she had fallen back into her old drug habit.
However, police said that forensic tests - including undigested food in her stomach - showed that Mrs Pietz had been killed around midnight on January 27.
When her body was found, she was wearing a mouthguard she only wore at night and her wedding ring was in cleaning solution in the bathroom; friends said she only took it off at night to clean it.
Phone records also show her phone was allegedly used at her husband's workplace.
And DNA evidence showed that Mr Pietz's was the last person to drive her car, which was found two weeks after her body in a parking lot near the University of Washington.
But defense attorneys have argued that their case is weak and that there were no eyewitnesses.