Trial date pushed back to September

The second retrial for Wharton undergraduate Irina Malinovskaya has been pushed back to September, Delaware State Prosecutor Victoria Witherell said yesterday.

Malinovskaya is charged with the murder of Irina Zlotnikov, a Temple University graduate student who was dating Malinovskaya's ex-boyfriend, Robert Bondar, at the time of her death in December 2004.

After two mistrials, a third trial was slated to begin in April.

Witherell said the trial was delayed because there are a number of motions currently pending court review.

She did not elaborate on the motions but said all parties agreed "the case is not ready for trial."

"Both the prosecutors and defense attorneys need time to respond to the motions," Witherell said.

Until September, she added, prosecutors will continue their "ongoing investigation." Witherell could not disclose what steps the investigation would entail.

Witherell said that a plea agreement has not been discussed because the defense attorneys have made it clear that they are not interested in reaching a deal.

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

Malinovskaya's first trial ended in February 2006 with a hung jury, 11-1, in favor of acquittal. A second trial concluded in October with another hung jury, this time in a dead heat, at 6-6.

Legal experts have said that a third trial is unlikely to lead to a conviction and may actually give the defense a better chance at an acquittal, due to inconsistencies and contradictions from witnesses.

Zlotnikov's body was found in the kitchen of Bondar's New Castle, Del., apartment after she had been bludgeoned to death with a blunt object. The murder weapon was never found.

Malinovskaya remains in custody at the Baylor Women's Correctional Institution in New Castle, Del. She has been in custody since her Dec. 2004 arrest.

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