WILMINGTON, Del. - Prosecutors presented evidence yesterday that Wharton undergraduate Irina Malinovskaya was planning to use a computer program to spy on someone.
They could not prove, however, that her former boyfriend Robert Bondar was actuallly the target of her effort.
Computer forensics expert Steven Bunting testified yesterday at Malinovskaya's trial about e-mails and documents he recovered from her personal computer and Penn e-mail account.
Malinovskaya is being tried for the first-degree murder of Irina Zlotnikov, who was dating Bondar at the time of her death.
Prosecutors have been trying to demonstrate that Malinovskaya was obsessed with Bondar in the months leading up to the December, 2004, killing.
In an e-mail Malinovskaya sent to a friend, she talked about using a computer program to spy on someone she did not name.
Bunting said that a demo spyware program was installed on Malinovskaya's computer in August 2004. This kind of program records everything that the user does on the computer, including e-mails sent and Internet sites visited. It can also be installed on another computer by sending an e-mail with an attachment containing the program.
Bunting, who also analyzed Rober Bondar's computer, testified that he found no indication that there was any effort made to install the program on Bondar's computer, despite prosecution attempts to associate Malinovskaya's use of the spyware program with her alleged obsession with Bondar.
Bunting also testified about a Microsoft Word document found on Malinovskaya's computer. It appeared to be written to Bondar, but was never sent as an e-mail.
In the document, written in September 2004 - three months prior to the murder - Malinovskaya listed certain "goals" concerning Bondar.
"To explain that I'm embarrassed to look into his eyes . and to intrude in his personal life," she wrote. "At same time I need to praise him more. I can't let him think that I want/don't want him as a man or boyfriend."
The defense also began its arguments yesterday, calling shoeprint expert Timothy Ostendorp as first witness.
Ostendorp testified that he could not determine the size of the shoeprint found at the crime scene or whether it belonged to a man or woman.
The defense also called Anthony Kuczynski, an employee at the Philadelphia Parking Authority, to corroborate Malinovskaya's story that she had lost her rental car on the day of the murder and, as a result, was late in returning it.
Kuczynski testified that his company often moves cars for street cleaning or road work without informing the owner of the car.
Malinovskaya's cell phone records show two calls to the Philadelphia Parking Authority on the day of the murder.
The trial continues this morning with testimony by forensic pathologist and former medical examiner Ali Hameli.
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