For the third time in his life, Peter Zielinski was convicted of murdering his wife. A jury unanimously found the 52-year-old Keizer man guilty of second-degree murder, rejecting his claim of extreme emotional disturbance as a defense. The late-evening verdict came Thursday .
Zielinski was His seven-day trial concluded with closing arguments on Tuesday. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 22.
Police arrested Zielinski in 2011 for shooting his wife, Lisa Zielinski, 38, at their Keizer home while their 5-year-old daughter was in the other room. Prosecutors argued the shooting was an intentional act made after months of marital turmoil and controlling behavior. Lisa Zielinski wanted to leave her husband, Marion County Deputy District Attorney Katie Suver said.
"She had enough of the defendant's drinking, anger and verbal abuse," Suver said. "She was leaving him. He made sure that would never happen.
" On multiple occasions, witnesses recounted Zielinski telling his wife, "If you ever try to leave me, I will kill you." Defense attorney Michael Bertholf said Lisa Zielinski was checked out of her marriage by the summer of 2010, and the couple's finances had been ravaged by the 2008 housing crash. Toward the end of their marriage, investigators said Lisa began a romantic relationship with another man and Peter was engaged in an emotional affair with a woman online.
Both talked of divorce. Bertholf said Peter Zielinski was doing "anything he could to save the marriage" and Lisa Zieli.