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Date Posted: 23:30:54 03/13/02 Wed
Jurors in talk show slaying case told police made 'huge mistake'
By VICKIE CHACHERE
Associated Press Writer
SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) - The wrong person has been arrested in the slaying of a former guest of the ''Jerry Spring Show,'' jurors were told Monday as a defense attorney pointed the finger at another man.
It wasn't Ralf Panitz who killed his ex-wife Nancy Campbell-Panitz just hours after the airing of a show featuring them, said Geoffrey Fieger, Panitz's defense attorney. Ralf Panitz had been drinking throughout the day and was passed out at the time of the slaying, Fieger said.
Instead, it was Panitz's nephew who hated Campbell-Panitz and is the more likely suspect, Fieger said in opening statements of the high-profile case.
In a presentation fitting for a slaying some are describing as a made-for-televison mystery, Fieger described for jurors a victim who had many enemies, a botched police investigation that led to the wrong man, a death that wasn't a murder at all.
Panitz, a 42-year-old German citizen, faces life in prison if convicted. He, the ex-wife and his current wife, Eleanor, had appeared on a taped episode of the Springer show called ''Secret Mistresses Confronted,'' during which Panitz told his former wife their on-again, off-again relationship was over.
Springer is expected to be called as a witness in the two-week trial.
The showed aired July 24, 2000, the same day a judge ordered Panitz thrown out of the home he once shared with Campbell-Panitz, 52. Hours later, she was found beaten and stomped to death in the home's kitchen, Assistant Sarasota County State Attorney Charlie Roberts said.
Roberts told jurors in his opening that Panitz, who has a black belt in martial arts, killed her because he was angry she had been given the small ranch-style pool home he'd coveted.
Roberts said Campbell-Panitz was beaten so savagely a sheriff's deputy who had seen her earlier in the day couldn't identify her.
''She was still wearing the same blue dress she had worn to a court hearing about 10 hours earlier when she pleaded with a judge for protection from that man,'' Roberts said.
Roberts said during the brutal attack on the woman, Panitz left bloody foot prints near the body. Those prints matched a pair of sneakers Panitz was wearing when he turned himself in several days later, police said.
Neighbors also heard the heavily accented and angry voice of a man coming from the house at the time of the slaying, Roberts said.
Fieger told jurors his experts will dispute that Campbell died from the beating. He said she suffered from advanced heart disease and untreated diabetes and high blood pressure and suffered a heart attack during a struggle.
''She was undoubtedly involved in a struggle with someone, and she dropped dead,'' said attorney Geoffrey Fieger.
Fieger said Panitz' relationship with his former wife may have been strained, but he still cared for her even on the day of the slaying.
Furthermore, Fieger said he will dispute the bloody foot prints were made by Panitz, whom he said was so drunk after consuming several beers and rum-and-cokes while watching the Springer show earlier in the day that he couldn't even stand.
Fieger said Panitz was delusional from the alcohol, thinking he saw comedian Chevy Chase at the neighborhood bar where Panitz, his wife and nephew had watched the show.
''He is so snockered, his head is laying on the bar, he's snoring loudly,'' Fieger said. ''He's literally unconscious at the bar.''
Markus Panitz, though, was not incapacitated, Fieger told the jury. Earlier that day, he'd tried to get a restraining order against Campbell-Panitz and feared he could be sent home to Germany because she was causing problems for his uncle, whom he depended on to stay in the United States.
''Markus didn't have any mixed feelings about Nancy - he hated her,'' Fieger said.
Markus Panitz was the one who called police to the home later that evening. Ralf Panitz, his wife and nephew had gone there to collect their belongings, but Ralf Panitz fled when his ex-wife showed up with a sheriff's deputy.
Prosecutors said Ralf Panitz came back into the home and killed his ex-wife.
Fieger, whose clients have included suicide doctor Jack Kevorkian, told jurors the physical evidence won't support their case.
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