Woman testifies ex-husband killed boyfriend

David Zielinski on trial for aggravated murder of 20-year-old

David Zielinski, with attorney Mark Geudtner, right, stands during a break in his trial today in Lucas County Common Pleas Court in Toledo.

Though married only a few weeks and already separated from her husband, Amber Hayes testified early today that her now ex-husband David Zielinski crept into her house one night last July and opened fire on her new boyfriend.

“It was one shot and then pow, pow, pow,” Ms. Hayes said on the witness stand in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

Mr. Zielinski, 34, of 3859 Berkey Southern Rd., Swanton Township, is on trial for the aggravated murder of Michael Jackson, 20, of Toledo, the attempted murder of Ms. Hayes, as well as kidnapping, and aggravated burglary.

Ian English, an assistant Lucas County prosecutor, told the jury in opening statements that Mr. Zielinski was “fueled with jealousy, enraged by hate, and guided to violence” the night he crawled into Ms. Hayes’ West Central Avenue home through a first-floor window, crept upstairs, and shot Mr. Jackson to death.

He didn’t stop there, Mr. English said, telling the jury that Mr. Zielinski stabbed Mr. Jackson and pistol whipped him before leaving the house with Ms. Hayes. He made her drive a few blocks away to where his pickup truck was parked, and when he got out to see where the young man was who was supposed to be waiting in the truck, Ms. Hayes drove off. Mr. Zielinski then fired multiple shots at her car, Mr. English said.

Defense attorney Mark Geudtner countered in his opening statement that Mr. Zielinski, as the estranged husband, was the natural suspect because “Michael Jackson was shot six times while in another man’s house, in another man’s bed with another man’s wife,” but that does not mean Mr. Zielinski was the killer.

“The evidence will also show that Michael Jackson was full of cocaine and cocaine metabolite, and the evidence will fail to rule out that Mr. Jackson’s killing may have been drug-related,” Mr. Geudtner said.

— Jennifer Feehan