Insanity plea rejected for Arlington Heights man who killed wife
A Racine County judge ruled Wednesday that an Arlington Heights man was not legally insane when he attacked and murdered his estranged wife with a hatchet in 2014.
Cristian Loga-Negru, 39, faces a sentence of up to life in prison after the judge rejected his claims he was suffering from a mental disease or defect when he killed Roxana Abrudan in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin.
Loga-Negru pleaded no contest in May to a charge of first-degree intentional homicide but sought a trial on the issue of his mental state at the time of the Nov. 21, 2014, killing.
After two days of testimony earlier this week, Loga-Negru's attorneys argued he was not guilty by reason of insanity because he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or symptoms of a mood disorder.
"That implication ... is rejected as not being credible by this court," Racine County Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz said in his ruling Wednesday.
Authorities say that before her death, Abrudan, 36, had fled her home in Arlington Heights and was staying with her boss. Abrudan and Loga-Negru were Romanian immigrants who had just been married earlier that year. Before leaving, Abrudan had made several calls to police about her husband and obtained an order of protection against him.
According to police, Loga-Negru tracked his wife to Wisconsin and lay in wait outside her boss' home with a hatchet. After the attack, police said, he put her in his car and drove to a nearby hotel where he was staying. Police arrested him at the hotel, and Abrudan died later that night in a Milwaukee hospital.
Under Wisconsin statute, "a person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct (it) was a result of mental disease or defect that person lacked substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of his or her conduct or conform his or her conduct to the requirements of the law."
Gasiorkiewicz said each of the defense's claims for why Loga-Negru had PTSD - a childhood history of neglect, corporal punishment at home and at school, witnessing a shooting, and serving in the military's counterintelligence service - were either inaccurate or did not have sufficient evidence behind them.
A 2013 screening test on Loga-Negru by the Veterans Affairs found he did not have the condition. While being held in Racine Country Jail, but before he was analyzed by a psychologist, the judge said Loga-Negru sought information about the symptoms of PTSD.
"This court rejects the opinion that Loga-Negru suffered from PTSD historically, or at the time of the event," Gasiorkiewicz said.
The judge said Loga-Negru, who holds a law degree in two countries, is an intelligent man who understood that there was a court order against him at the time of the killing.
"Clearly the defendant knew of the order of protection, he knew he was not to contact Roxana," Gasiorkiewicz said. "Yet, in the face of this knowledge, he attempted on several occasions to contact Roxana by phone, attempted to confront her at her place of employment, Googled her employer's address and location, followed her to Wisconsin, purchased binoculars, attempted to purchase a weapon and left the hotel that night to confront her."
Had the judge sided with the defense, Loga-Negru would have been housed in a mental health facility until he was deemed safe to leave. Instead, he faces a lengthy sentence in a Wisconsin state prison.
Loga-Negru did not speak or show any reaction Wednesday as the judge gave a 45-minute explanation of his ruling. His father, who had testified during the trial about his son's state of mind before the crime, was in court, but no one from Abrudan's family was present.
Loga-Negru is scheduled to return to court Oct. 5 for a pre-sentence hearing.