What should have been a dramatic day in the trial of Wharton undergraduate Irina Malinovskaya became a mundane affair as the testimony of her ex-boyfriend, Robert Bondar, was pushed back to next week.
After grilling Bondar through Monday's session, the defense called him to the stand yesterday, but his testimony was cut short. The prosecution said they had new evidence - additional e-mails between Malinovskaya and Bondar - that they were going to introduce during cross-examination, so the defense asked to postpone the testimony.
The defense spent much of Monday alleging that Bondar was unmoved by the death of then-girlfriend Irina Zlotnikov, for which Malinovskaya is accused of murder. According to testimony yesterday from a police officer on the scene, Bondar did not seem upset following his discovery of Zlotnikov's body.
In the afternoon, Malinovskaya's mother took the stand and answered questions through an interpreter as the defense attempted to repel the prosecution's accusations that Malinovskaya had planned to put spyware on Bondar's computer.
Malinovskaya's mother said she asked her daughter to buy spyware for her so she could monitor the Internet activity of Malinovskaya's sister, who was 16 at the time.
The trial is set to continue with a brief session today but will then recess until Tuesday.
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