Foothills murder trial ready to begin

Nothing is simple in Ahwatukee Foothills, including murder.

Next week, if all goes according to plan, the second-degree murder trial of 51-year-old Grace Pianka will begin.

She is accused of shooting and killing her husband, Adam Kostewicz, in the couple's home in the 16600 block of South 30th Street on April 14, 2006, after she discovered he was having an affair.

But the defense has argued for months that it wasn't Pianka but the "other woman," Virginia McIntyre, who supposedly killed Kostewicz.

Defense lawyers said McIntyre met Kostewicz on an Internet site designed to connect married people looking for an extramarital fling. After Kostewicz was found dead by McIntyre, she became the administrator for the estate since Pianka was in jail and his parents live in Poland, which has caused the defense to suggest she allegedly killed him to gain access to the estate.

To further complicate the proceedings, McIntyre and her husband, Robert McIntyre, have left the state and are in virtual hiding. They have said that they fear Pianka's friends are after them, although they have told prosecutors they will be attending the trial. But no one, including lead prosecutor Deputy County Attorney Cleve Lynch, apparently knows where McIntyre is.

What role McIntyre had in the murder may make a jury stop and think, but on Monday Judge Pendleton Gaines called it the SODDI defenses -- Some Other Dude Did It -- when he denied a motion to compel her to reveal her location.

The trial is set to begin with jury selection on July 24, but even that could be a problem. Gaines has an earlier scheduled trial set to begin July 22, so Pianka's case will go to case transfer where any criminal judge with a spare three weeks for the trial could pick it up, or not.

If found guilty, Pianka faces up to 22 years in prison.

The case is straightforward, according to police and prosecutors: Pianka discovered Kostewicz was having an affair and after drinking wine and tequila, shot and killed her 41-yerar-old husband when he returned home to get some clothes. When Kostewicz didn't return to the hotel room he was sharing with McIntyre she became concerned and called police. Eventually she went to the house and, looking in a window, saw Kostewicz's dead body.