Suspect's wounds at issue in murder trial

Diana Thames had cuts on her blood-splattered fingers, a scratch on her right forearm, a blister on the base of her right thumb and a curved puncture wound on her thigh when she was interviewed by police after her friend's stabbing death, a Palatine police detective testified Tuesday.

Thames explained most of the wounds away as having happened while she was on vacation with her friend -- Palatine teacher Cindy Wolosick -- days earlier, detective Robert Bice said, telling him she was hurt while swimming and while carrying luggage.

In terms of the puncture on her thigh, Thames told him, "My friend did that to me before she died," Bice said.

Tuesday marked the second day of the murder trial of Thames, 50, of Bloomington, who's charged with stabbing her friend of two decades 62 times in the head, neck and chest hours after they'd come back from a trip to Mexico.

Thames has told police she was asleep in another room of Wolosick's Palatine condo on Aug. 12, 2005, when she heard the door buzzer ring, heard her friend get the door and heard a man's voice. She awoke later, she has said, to hear the front door close, and then found Wolosick -- described by friends as a lively personality who could light up the room -- dying in her bed.

Thames told police Wolosick called out her name, and she crawled on the bed with her.

But prosecutors say it was Thames who executed the attack, stabbing Wolosick with a large kitchen knife after the two faced off over a lingering financial dispute relating to the home rehab business they co-owned.

Specifically, prosecutors have said, the argument dealt with an investor in the Bloomington business who'd wanted to remove part of that investment but for months hadn't gotten his money.

On Tuesday, some testimony bolstered that motive.

One longtime friend said Wolosick had called him in July 2005 and told him she planned to confront Thames about the financial dealings after their Mexico vacation.

Joseph Higgs said Wolosick told him creditors were calling because business-related checks were being returned.

"She said Diana was handling the finances," Higgs said. "She said she and Diana were going to sit down and talk about what's going on."

Under cross-examination, he said he'd borrowed about $2,000 from Wolosick himself but said he paid it back.

Friend Lorie Suchomski, who'd been in Mexico with the duo, said she overheard a chat between the two about finances -- with Wolosick saying they needed to go over the books together, and then telling Thames she felt things were "spinning out of control," Suchomski testified.

Suchomski said Thames later told her that she felt like she "just didn't know who (Wolosick) was anymore."

Thames' lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, has argued financial issues would never lead her client to put such a heinous end to a long friendship.

The two were so close, Zellner said, they called each other "each other's angels."

Zellner also has said there's no way Thames -- who called 911 to report the murder -- could overpower the bigger and stronger Wolosick.

On Tuesday, prosecutors played taped footage of the grisly crime scene; when the camera panned to Wolosick's bloody body, people on both sides of the courtroom wept.

Thames was among them, wiping tears with a tissue.

A key piece of prosecution evidence, a videotaped confession Thames made to police, will not be played in court. Scotillo tossed it out last summer, ruling that any statements Thames made to police after requesting a lawyer can't be used in her trial.

Zellner had said her client was intimidated into confessing and was denied an attorney, though prosecutors argued Thames had waived her right to a lawyer and then spoken openly to police.

The trial will continue today in Rolling Meadows before Scotillo. It's a bench trial, meaning only he will hear the evidence and decide her fate.