Appeals court upholds Guenter Wende's murder conviction

An appellate court has upheld the conviction of a Mastic man who stabbed a woman to death in her apartment and lay down on the floor with her and cried while she bled to death.

Guenter Wende, now 48, was convicted in 2011 of killing Laura Pizzini, 25, in her Mastic apartment five years ago. Police and prosecutors say he was obsessed with her and finally acted after she made social plans with another man in his presence at a bar.

She let him in when he showed up later at her home, and he stabbed her through the stomach.

The trial prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla, said the Appellate Division Second Department got it right.

"Mr. Wende received a fair trial and will now spend the rest of his life where he belongs," Biancavilla said. "Laura Pizzini can now rest in peace."

Wende is now at the Elmira Correctional Facility serving a sentence of 25 years to life.

In arguments before the Appellate Division last month, Wende's appellate attorney, Kirk Brandt of the Legal Aid Society, argued that the verdict was tainted because jurors improperly heard that Wende refused to take a polygraph examination during his police interrogation.

During the trial, detectives testified that Wende later insisted that he didn't hear them knocking on his door when they were searching for him soon after the crime. They challenged him to take a polygraph exam about that issue and he declined. Courts have long held that polygraph testimony is inadmissible at trial because the machines cannot reliably prove if someone is lying. Brandt argued that testimony about Wende refusing to take the test was improper shifting of the burden of proof to the defendant.

In its decision, released Wednesday, the Appellate Division ruled it was the defense's fault that the polygraph refusal came into evidence. The court said Wende's trial attorney had opened the door by repeatedly asking detectives if Wende had been completely cooperative with them. Detectives testified that the refusal was one way in which he was not cooperative.

The court also rejected arguments suggesting that Wende confessed as the result of abuse. He had a welt on his forehead after he signed a confession, but detectives testified that was from banging his head on the wall in remorse.

The court's decision said prosecutors "established beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant's statements to the detectives were made voluntarily and were not coerced by the detectives' use of physical force."