WILMINGTON, Del. - Prosecutors tried on Friday to paint Irina Malinovskaya as a woman so blinded by her obsession with ex-boyfriend Robert Bondar that she would go to any lengths - including murder - to get him back.
Their case included reading e-mails sent by Malinovskaya in which she described herself as a "young, hungry lioness" and complained of depression after her breakup with Bondar.
Malinovskaya, a Wharton undergraduate, is undergoing her second trial for the first-degree murder of Bondar's then-girlfriend, Irina Zlotnikov, in December 2004. She could face life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors showed photographs of Zlotnikov's body lying in Bondar's apartment as a detective described the spatters of blood discovered in the kitchen and utility room of the apartment and explained the position of the victim's body.
He also mentioned a fingerprint of Malinovskaya's found on the cap of Bondar's laundry detergent.
But the day was mostly devoted to testimony by Bondar.
Prosecuting attorney Bill George had Bondar read aloud a compilation of e-mails sent between himself and Malinovskaya.
The passages George selected showed the depths of Malinovskaya's emotion after Bondar broke off their three-and-a-half month relationship in August 2003.
In an e-mail sent to Bondar right after the breakup, Malinovskaya wrote, "I feel so bad now, I just want to die. . It hurts so much."
Another e-mail by Malinovskaya, with the subject heading "Hungry, Hungry," read, in part, "Imagine yourself in bed with a young, hungry lioness."
And Bondar admitted that a physical relationship between the two continued long after their breakup.
He said their sexual encounters would usually begin with Malinovskaya cooking him dinner and would culminate with sex.
"She wanted to have a physical relationship if we couldn't have any other one," Bondar said.
He added that he eventually began to feel concerned about the intensity of Malinovskaya's feelings toward him.
Having just ended a relationship with his first wife, Bondar said he wasn't ready for a serious relationship, and when she started saying that "she couldn't live without me - she loves me," he felt like it was time to cut the relationship off.
To further demonstrate Bondar's interest in ending the relationship, prosecutors had him describe his relationship with Malinovskaya following the discovery that she was pregnant.
He said he wanted her to have an abortion, which he said she initially refused.
But Malinovskaya had a miscarriage before the procedure could be carried out, he said.
While she was recovering from the miscarriage, Bondar said he visited her at her apartment, when the last sexual contact between the two - "a failed attempt at oral sex" - occurred.
He said that when he told Malinovskaya that he was looking to date other people, she replied in a July 27, 2004, e-mail, "If you will get a girlfriend, I will die."
Malinovskaya's parents declined to comment on the trial. At several points Malinovskaya's mother began to cry silently.
Prosecutors also refused to comment, and defense attorneys declined to comment on the possible direction the trial might take.
The trial is scheduled to continue at 9:30 a.m. today as prosecutors finish their direct examination of Bondar and defense attorney Eugene Maurer cross-examines him, defense attorney Mary Burnell said.
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