WILMINGTON, Del. - A crowded courtroom watched yesterday as an intense exchange unfolded between Irina Malinovskaya and the state prosecutor conducting her cross-examination.
The Wharton undergraduate, on trial for the first-degree murder of Irina Zlotnikov in December 2004, took the stand again yesterday as the defense's final witness.
During cross-examination, prosecutors introduced into evidence a letter found in Malinovskaya's apartment, which they referred to as the "Reasons It Was Not Me" letter.
The letter, which Malinovskaya identified as a list of things she planned to tell detectives during questioning, included assertions that she was not in Delaware at the time of the murder.
She testified yesterday that she had planned to lie to detectives in advance because she was afraid of being named a suspect.
The letter also described Robert Bondar - Malinovskaya's ex-boyfriend who was dating Zlotnikov at the time of the murder - as a "penniless drug addict" whom she did not want anything to do with. However, Malinovskaya said on the stand that at that time she still loved Bondar and planned to lie about her feelings for him to protect her boyfriend, Sergey Dedov.
Tthe letter was not the only piece of evidence that prosecutor Bill George used in his attempt to paint Malinovskaya as an obsessed lover who would do anything for Bondar's attention.
He questioned her about the erotic so-called "Bedtime Story" e-mail that Bondar sent to Malinovskaya.
Malinovskaya testified that she sent Bondar a similarly erotic story in response, which she described as being "very nasty." Both were involved in other relationships at the time.
George then asked Malinovskaya about becoming pregnant with Bondar's child, despite having a new boyfriend.
Malinovskaya testified that she did not tell her boyfriend about the pregnancy and led him to believe that it was his child after she had a miscarriage.
The prosecution also asked Malinovskaya about a file found on her laptop that included Bondar's spring 2004 class schedule at Widener University, where he was a law student, and also his final exam schedule.
George repeatedly asked Malinovskaya if she had made this file on her computer. Malinovskaya answered each question by stating that she did not remember creating the file, but it was possible she had.
Malinovskaya also testified that she did not understand what was happening when she was apprehended.
"I understood something was not going right, but I didn't understand I was being arrested," Malinovskaya said.
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