Woman disputes claim she had hand in ex-husband's murder

A former Lake in the Hills woman emphatically denied Wednesday plotting with her father to murder her estranged husband in 2003, sharply contradicting claims made in a lawsuit filed by her former father-in-law.

Under questioning from both her attorney and one for her murdered husband's father, Joann Goldstein told a McHenry County jury that she had no idea her father had brought a gun with him from Texas on a visit in early November 2003, and could not have known he intended to use it to kill Philip Goldstein two days later.

"I didn't know he had a gun until police called me (to say there had been a shooting)," she testified. She later raised her voice and loudly said "No" when asked whether she solicited her father, Adriaan Vlot, to kill her husband.

She was the final witness in a three-day trial over a lawsuit filed against her by former father-in-law Jerome Goldstein, on behalf of his murdered son's daughters and estate. The trial is taking a day off Thursday and re-adjourning Friday afternoon for closing arguments and jury deliberations.

The suit, which seeks a minimum $50,000 in damages, claims Joann Goldstein, 41, encouraged her father to kill her husband as the couple went through a divorce and bitter custody fight over their two daughters.

Vlot, 78, formerly of Texas, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2005 and is now serving a life sentence for shooting Philip Goldstein, 43, to death as he backed out of a parking spot outside his Crystal Lake apartment. The Goldsteins' daughters, then 9 and 10 years old, were in the vehicle's back seat when their father was shot to death.

Joann Goldstein, who now lives with her mother and daughters in Texas, did admit Wednesday that she often confided with her father about frustrations she had with her divorce proceedings.

Those frustrations, she said, included feelings that a court-appointed custody evaluator was siding with her husband because of their shared Jewish ancestry, and that her more affluent in-laws were using their money to manipulate the legal system against her.

Contradicting her own attorney's remarks from Monday's opening statements, Joann Goldstein said that she had asked her father to travel from Texas before the slaying to attend a court hearing on a custody matter. But instead of going to court, Vlot went to Philip Goldstein's apartment to kill him.

Jurors also heard Wednesday from Jerome Goldstein, who described his son as a "good kid" and dedicated father.

"He was really a nice person," he said. "I love him very much and I miss him. And I think about him all the time."