Defense saves Bondar for later

WILMINGTON, Del. - Defense lawyers made a surprise move yesterday when they chose not to cross-examine Robert Bondar following the conclusion of his testimony in the case against his ex-girlfriend and Wharton undergraduate Irina Malinovskaya.

Unlike the two previous trials, in which the defense grilled Bondar in one of the more crucial moments of the proceedings, attorney Joe Hurley said he would instead call Bondar back to the stand as a defense witness later in the trial.

During yesterday's questioning from the prosecution, Bondar spoke about finding his then-girlfriend Irina Zlotnikov dead on his kitchen floor.

He said the last time he saw Zlotnikov alive was the morning of the murder - he left her asleep in his apartment while he went to work.

Bondar said he called Zlotnikov several times throughout the morning to see how she was, though he couldn't get good enough reception to have a conversation with her - he said that he very well could have been talking to Malinovskaya rather than Zlotnikov.

"I wasn't even sure if it was her voice," he said, adding that he asked himself: "Did I call the right Irina?"

Bondar said that when he arrived home, his apartment door was open by 6 or 7 inches, and that a garbage can he left mostly full in the kitchen was next to his bathroom, empty.

He also noted that some of his belongings were strewn across his apartment floor.

"I figured my girlfriend was cleaning," he said.

However, Bondar said that as he approached his bedroom, he found a lot of blood on the floor and the body of Zlotnikov lying in the kitchen.

Bondar said he couldn't find a pulse when he tried looking on her arm, though he didn't immediately lose hope that she would be fine.

"She was still warm. She felt alive," he said.

After the police arrived, Bondar said he was taken to the police station and was in shock, explaining why he wasn't visibly emotional at the time.

He also talked about the strained relationship he had with Malinovskaya.

"I valued her friendship," he said, adding that her repeated advances caused him to try to cut off contact with her.

Two attempts by Malinovskaya to contact Bondar angered him because he was spending time with Zlotnikov that day, whom he hadn't seen in several weeks.

The state also called two former neighbors of Bondar to testify about the day of and preceding the crime.

The neighbors, a mailman and a building maintenance man all said they saw a hooded figure who they believed to be a woman pacing outside Bondar's apartment the morning of the murder.

The defense attempted to establish via the maintenance man, Christopher Di Vincenzo, that workers in the building who had easy access might have committed the murder.

Hurley asked about the availability of a master key to the building's maintenance technicians and whether workers had access to tools, as the coroner had determined that a blunt object, possibly a crowbar or hammer was used to commit the murder.

Di Vincenzo responded by saying that there was a master key that opened up "98 percent" of the apartments, and that each technician has his own tools.

Hurley finished by asking Di Vincenzo if he saw the woman outside with a box, hammer or crowbar. The witness said he had not.

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