Suspect's statement under scrutiny

One last time, a Mastic man fixated on a woman who didn't want a relationship with him put his arm around her -- and with the other drove a knife into her stomach, according to a statement police say he gave them.

The nine-page statement, signed by Guenter Wende, 45, has been the centerpiece the past two days at his second-degree murder trial before Suffolk County Court Judge Barbara Kahn. He is charged with killing Laura Pizzini, 25. Wende's attorney, Jason Bassett, has argued that detectives beat him until he signed a statement they created.

The statement says Pizzini let Wende into her Mastic apartment on Oct. 14, 2009, and they discussed his love for her. Pizzini was pounding on his chest, explaining that it could never work, when Wende reached for a hunting knife in his waistband, the statement said.

"I had my left hand on her back, and I stabbed her in the stomach," Wende said, according to the statement.

During cross-examination Thursday of Det. Sue Nolan, who took the statement, Bassett suggested that she wrote it from facts she already knew after other detectives left Wende with red marks visible in his tearful mug shot.

But Nolan denied it, saying that a grief-stricken Wende hit himself in the forehead and banged his head on the wall after he confessed.

"There were no injuries on him until he inflicted them himself," she said.

Then, during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla, Nolan said the statement contained a wealth of detail she didn't know, particularly about how Wende perceived Pizzini and his feelings for her, which he said "he couldn't control."

She also didn't know, until he told her, what he did after killing Pizzini, Nolan said.

"He said he kissed her on the cheek and laid on the floor" by her as she died, Nolan said.

Later Thursday, Det. Michael Milau testified that during a search of Wende's work van, he found a Ping-Pong ball. Written on it: "Laura I love you forever. You hide in shame."

In Wende's apartment, Milau said he found what appeared to be a draft of a letter to Pizzini.

It detailed why he was attracted to her. "What I saw was a beautiful, down to earth girl, soft-spoken, is somewhat athletic and slender," the letter said, adding she had a passion for her work at a nursery, just as he took pride in his work as a carpenter. "I feel very lucky to have met you and got as far as we did."

It concluded: "You are a very special girl, in your own way. Don't let anybody change that and take that away from you."