Man from Keizer plans to appeal third murder conviction

Peter J. Zielinski's efforts to reduce his sentence for the murder of his wife in Keizer 13 years ago were unsuccessful.

Again.

For the second time, jurors recently found him guilty of killing Lisa Zielinski in her Keizer home on January 12, 2011.

He was convicted of first-degree murder following a trial in Marion County District Court in July.

He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Given the time he has already spent in prison, he could be eligible for parole in 12 years, when he is 65.

He tried to convince the jury that he was acting under “extreme emotional distress” at the moment he shot his wife. With such mitigation, a murder under those circumstances could be considered manslaughter under Oregon law, which carries a lighter sentence.

The jury rejected this defense.

Zielinski has not been free since he turned himself in to Keizer police the morning of the shooting.

According to court records, he never denied the shooting.

At the time of the murder, he was 39 years old and worked part-time at a community center in Salem. He was married for the second time. The couple had a five-year-old child, but their marriage was failing because both partners had broken their marital fidelity, court records show.

The crime occurred after a restless night at their home in Keizer. The couple got up at 5 a.m., prepared for the workday and got their daughter ready for school.

Zielinski later described the cold feeling his wife gave him as he left the shower and got dressed.

“I don't even know how to explain what I felt,” Zielinski later told a psychologist. “All I hear in my head is that I am weak and without character.”

He then described in detail how he had killed his wife.

“I walk past my closet. I stop. I reach up and grab my gun… and turn to go to the bathroom,” he told Dr. Richard Hulteng. “I looked at her, raised the gun and pulled the trigger.”

He put the gun back in the closet, told his daughter to get a jacket, then dropped her off half an hour early while the family organized a carpool.

While driving, he called his mother and told her, “I shot her.”

She urged him to call a close friend. He did.

At around 7 a.m. he told his friend: “I shot her.”

“Does she need medical help? Is she okay?” the friend asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” Zielinski replied.

By this time, he had already arrived at the Keizer police station and informed dispatchers via a telephone at the entrance that his wife needed medical attention.

Soon after, the police discovered the woman’s body.

Zielinski was charged with murder with a firearm on January 13, 2011.

On November 18, 2013, the first day of the trial, Zielinski pleaded guilty, but his agreement with prosecutors allowed him to appeal the verdict, claiming that he suffered from “extreme emotional disturbances.”

It took nearly four years for the Oregon State Court of Appeals to rule in his favor, finding that a judge's decision not to allow certain testimony about Zielinski's emotional state was wrong and sending the case back for a new trial.

At his second trial in August 2019, a jury convicted Zielinski of murder, rejecting his claim that he suffered emotional distress.

But he again challenged the legality of the case against him. And in 2022, the Oregon Court of Appeals concluded that this time prosecutors had improperly questioned defense witnesses.

“The error was not harmless,” the court said in its ruling.

The court remanded the case to Marion County, where a third hearing took place in July.

His attorney, Michael Bertholf of Medford, said by email Monday, Aug. 26, that Zielinski offered before trial to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter, agree to a 20-year prison sentence and waive an appeal.

“Mr. Zielinski committed murder, not manslaughter,” said Brendan Murphy, Marion County's assistant district attorney. “He will now serve life in prison, with a minimum term of 25 years before he is eligible for (unpromised) parole.”

Zielinski now has 30 days after the verdict was announced on August 22 to file another appeal. Bertholf said there will be one.

“The appeal will likely address the instructions for the extreme emotional disturbance defense,” Bertholf said in an email Monday, August 26.

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Les Zaitz is publisher and CEO of the Salem Reporter. He co-founded the news organization in 2018. He has been a journalist in Oregon for nearly 50 years, working for both daily and local newspapers and digital news services. His commitment to local journalism is nationally recognized. He is also editor and publisher of the Malheur Enterprise in Vale, Oregon.