Jury debates fate of man in killing of wife
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YOUNGSTOWN -- A Mahoning County jury will resume deliberations this morning in the case of a man accused of stabbing his estranged wife to death at a Coitsville motel two summers ago.
Jurors talked for less than an hour Thursday afternoon before Common Pleas Judge Anthony Donofrio sent them home for the night. They are deciding the fate of Francis "Jerry" Rydarowicz, 50, formerly of Hubbard, who is charged with aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault and domestic violence.
He's accused of killing his wife, Katherine, 41, on June 22, 2019, at the Kings Motel off U.S. Route 422.
She was found stabbed to death on the driveway outside the motel. The defendant also had stab wounds to the neck and left wrist.
Earlier Thursday, Rydarowicz took the witness stand -- saying his wife initiated the attack in the motel room, stabbing him in the neck from behind.
In a calm, steady voice, Rydarowicz described the attack during direct examination by his attorney John Juhasz. He said he had allowed the woman early in the evening of June 22, 2019, to come to his motel room to get her belongings and a car part. The defendant said he helped carry three loads of items to the pickup truck the woman drove to the entrance drive of the motel.
After the third trip, Rydarowicz returned to the room and his wife asked to look around one more time.
"I went over to lift the box spring and mattress from the bed, and then I felt a sharp pain in my neck," Rydarowicz told jurors.
The defendant testified he saw that Katherine had the hunting knife he'd had since he was 9 and had stabbed him the neck. He said he reacted immediately and raised his left hand as his wife came forward with the knife.
"I got the knife off of her and she turned," the defendant said in describing stabbing her in the back. "It was like a one-second blur, all that happened to me."
When Juhasz asked him why he used deadly force, Rydarowicz said he feared for his life after he saw his bloody neck in the mirror.
The whole struggle took about two seconds, Rydarowicz said.
During cross examination, assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Paris pointed out an inconsistency as Rydarowicz had said he stayed inside the motel room after the stabbings -- but Paris noted that forensic evidence showed that his blood was found outside the room.
Rydarowicz also did not have an answer when she asked the defendant why his DNA was the only one found on the knife handle
Paris also questioned the defendant saying he'd been in a hunched position when he was stabbed in the neck.
"Wouldn't it make more sense if she had stabbed you in the back?" Paris asked.
Paris also noted that Rydarowicz had said that both the car part and the knife were not in the motel room when his wife came there, but earlier testimony suggested that Rydarowicz had told his mother in the hospital that those items were in the motel room.
"I was under sedation, coming out of surgery and I didn't know that the hell I was saying," Rydarowicz answered the prosecutor.
During closing, Paris told jurors that Rydarowicz was lying on the stand and that the attack was really a murder-suicide pact with the defendant stabbing himself. She pointed to desperate text messages the defendant had made to his sister, just three hours before the murder. She also noted the defendant -- after being stabbed -- did not call 911.
Juhasz, in his closing argument, urged jurors to consider the self-defense theory.
"This (stabbing) is all over in a flash of a heartbeat," he said. "This is something built into us, a self-defense mechanism. That's what happened to Jerry. He didn't have time to think (about legal arguments). When you are scared to death, the adrenaline takes over."
Before deliberating, Donofrio read lengthy instructions to jurors, giving a self-defense instruction.
gvogrin@tribtoday.com