Witness: Suspect upset before 2009 slaying
Laura Pizzini, a 25-year-old Mastic resident, was found stabbed to death in her apartment. Credit: Handout
A couple of weeks before a Mastic woman was stabbed to death in her kitchen, the man who had been spending a lot of time watching her in a local bar came in upset, one of the bar's owners testified Tuesday in Suffolk County Court.
Usually, Guenter Wende didn't drink at Good Friends, Georgia Graziano said. He usually came in shortly after Laura Pizzini did, but this time he came alone, she said.
Wende, 45, of Mastic, said he'd caused a scene at Pizzini's apartment, Graziano said.
"He said he loved her and that he couldn't live without her," she testified during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla. "He said he'd kill himself if he couldn't be with her."
Two weeks later on Oct. 14, 2009, Pizzini, 25, was dead. Wende was arrested and charged with second-degree murder soon after. He's on trial before Judge Barbara Kahn.
Prosecutors say Wende told police he intended to kill himself in front of Pizzini but ended up stabbing her through the stomach instead.
During cross-examination by defense attorney Jason Bassett, Graziano said Wende never threatened to kill Pizzini, but he did grab her violently by the arm once when another man was going to drive her home.
Suffolk County Police investigating the murder of Laura Pizzini arrested Guenter Wende, 42, of Mastic. (Oct. 20, 2009) Credit: SCPD
Except for the time he said he'd kill himself, Graziano said Wende came to Good Friends only when Pizzini did. "Whenever she came in, he would follow," she said.
A month before Pizzini was killed, an agitated Wende came into Lee Anne's Flower Shoppe, employee Marjorie Drokoski testified. He put a $100 bill on the counter and ordered a red rose, surrounded by six yellow roses, surrounded by other flowers, she said. He was uneasy and insistent on how it should be done -- and told her the flowers must be handed to Pizzini and no one else at her workplace, Forge River Nursery Garden Center.
Drokoski said when she gave the flowers and a thick envelope from Wende to Pizzini, there was no smile. "It was just a blank stare," she said.
Pizzini's boss, Frederick Portz, testified that he asked her what she wanted to do with the flowers, which she clearly didn't want.
Portz said she told him to make bouquets out of them and sell them, so he did.
Correction: A previous version of this story said that Pizzini and Wende had a brief relationship.
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