2011 Keizer murder case returns to court for second retrial

During opening arguments Tuesday in the trial of a man accused of murdering his wife, Peter Zielinski's defense attorney contended he killed Lisa Zielinski in an episode of "extreme emotional defense" and asked the jury to find him guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Zielinski was twice convicted of murdering his wife and twice successful in having his conviction overturned.

Now 52, Zielinski was arrested 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."

She showed the jury a photo of Lisa Zielinski smiling along with emails her husband sent in the days preceding her death.

Zielinski knew his wife wanted out of their marriage. He promised to stop drinking, stop trying to control her and stop yelling at her. When she refused to stay in the marriage, his attitude soured, according to email records.

"I am now resolved in making it as difficult as a can for her to do so," he wrote. "I have nothing left to lose."

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.

"Their financials went to hell and their relationship spiraled," he said, adding Peter Zielinski was doing "anything he could to save the marriage."

Bertholf said Zielinski snapped when he shot his wife and asked the jury to side with the defense of extreme emotional distress and convict his client of manslaughter. First-degree manslaughter carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.

Zielinski has been incarcerated since the shooting and conviction in 2013.

The day of the shooting

Lisa Zielinski worked in sales at the KYKN radio station and sang in the choir at Saint Edward Catholic Church. She was known as a devoted mother and stepmother.

The day of the shooting, her 5-year-old daughter told police she didn't hear or see anything but when "she said goodbye to her mom, her mom didn't answer," Suver said.

Peter Zielinski took his daughter to her kindergarten carpool before calling a friend, admitting to the shooting and turning himself in at the police station.

Now the Chief of Police in Keizer, Andrew Copeland was a patrol sergeant and one of the first law enforcement officers to talk to Zielinski and find Lisa Zielinski dead in the master bathroom of the family's home on Nightingale Court. Copeland said she was in pajamas and slippers. When they found items indicating kids lived in the home, they searched the house and worked to locate the children. Both were safely at school.

A 13-year legal back-and-forth ensued after Peter Zielinski's arrest. Multiple trial dates were canceled as Zielinski's attorneys fought to include expert testimony of his anxiety disorder diagnosis, which they claimed supported an extreme emotional disturbance defense.

Prosecutors sought to include evidence of marital turmoil, verbal abuse, alcoholism and physical abuse preceding the shooting.

Before he was first scheduled to go to trial in 2013, Zielinski abruptly changed his plea from not guilty to guilty. The plea was conditional, giving him the right to appeal. That year, Marion County Judge Dale Penn sentenced Zielinski to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

At Peter Zielinski's sentencing, Lisa's mother, Rhonda Tupper, called him an "unspeakable monster."

"You turned the world of a 5-year-old upside down and you took from me my beautiful daughter who was also my best friend," she said. "May you have a long time to reflect on your actions. As her family, we despise you."

Case goes to trial, conviction overturned

In an opinion issued in 2017 , the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled the trial court erred in excluding expert testimony of Zielinski's anxiety disorder diagnosis.

His case returned to Marion County Circuit Court for trial in 2019.

The defense argued Zielinski was in a "state of desperation," financial woes due to underemployment, undiagnosed PTSD from his military experience and failing marriage.

Much of the defense centered around Zielinski's war experiences — he was a Marine in the mid-1990s and served as as a radio operator during the Gulf War — leading to flashbacks, suicidal ideation, alcohol use and nightmares.

Prosecutors argued Peter Zielinski was demeaning and controlling.

The jury unanimously rejected the emotional disturbance defense and convicted Zielinski.

Zielinski's attorneys appealed again, and in 2022, the Oregon Court of Appeals overturned the conviction .

The appeals court found Marion County Circuit Court Judge Susan Tripp improperly allowed the deputy district attorney to examine the past clients of an expert witness during the second trial.

The case returned to court this week for another retrial. It is scheduled to run until July 23.

For questions, comments and news tips, email reporter Whitney Woodworth at wmwoodworth@statesmanjournal.com , call 503-910-6616 or follow on X at @wmwoodworth

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: 2011 Keizer murder case returns to court for second retrial