Student gets new murder trial date

A Wharton undergraduate charged with first-degree murder will return to trial next month for the second time.

Irina Malinovskaya is accused of murdering Temple University pharmacology student Irina Zlotnikov on Dec. 23, 2004.

Malinovskaya's first trial ended in a mistrial Feb. 14, after the jury failed to reach a verdict. Her case will be retried before the same judge beginning May 22.

Malinovskaya's lawyer, Eugene Maurer, did not return calls for comment.

Kathleen Feldman -- chief court reporter of the New Castle County Courthouse, where Malinovskaya was tried -- said that hung juries almost always result in retrials.

Meanwhile, Malinovskaya remains at the Baylor Women's Correctional Institution in New Castle, Del., where she has spent the past year and several months, awaiting a final verdict.

"The idea of being in a correctional facility is horrifying at best," said a friend of Malinovskaya, who has visited her several times over the past year. "When you look at the average inmate there and when you look at a Wharton undergraduate, there's definitely going to be a wide gap."

The friend, who asked to remain anonymous, said he exchanges letters with Malinovskaya every few weeks and attended part of her trial. He said she has spoken little of the trial's outcome.

"She said that she was very, very tired," he said in regards to a letter he received from Malinovskaya following the first trial.

Lubavitch House Rabbi Levi Haskelevich has also visited Malinovskaya in prison and testified as a character witness in her defense.

"She was eagerly awaiting a positive outcome, she said, and obviously [it] was shocking, and she was very upset" about the hung jury, Haskelevich said.

He added that he came to know Malinovskaya through the weekly Sabbath dinners which she attended at the Lubavitch House, a Jewish hub on campus, with friends while at Penn.

During her time at the correctional facility, he said, he has sent her books on Judaism and received several letters in return.

Just before the Jewish holiday of Purim, he said that Malinovskaya sent him a letter asking if he would give to charity on her behalf since she was unable to do so herself.

Malinovskaya's friend said he has sent her over 15 books, ranging from The DaVinci Code to Harry Potter.

In their correspondence and during visits, Malinovskaya has not spoken much of the charges against her, but she has maintained her innocence from the beginning.

"We tried to talk about other things," he said. "We didn't go there to question her."

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