DuPage jury to get Darien murder case Friday
A DuPage County jury will begin deliberations Friday morning in the trial of a Darien man accused of slashing the throat of an ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend.
Prosecutors rested their case against 36-year-old Joseph Spitalli and defense attorneys followed suit Thursday after testimony by the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on 31-year-old Temur Huseynli on the morning of his death. Closing arguments will begin at 9:30 a.m.
Spitalli faces six counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated battery and one count each of armed violence and aggravated kidnapping. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.
Dr. Mitra Kalelkar testified that she determined Huseynli was killed by a "large, 7¾-inch slash incise wound from the left side of his neck to the back of the right side of his neck."
Kalelkar said the single slash wound was so deep it severed Huseynli's carotid artery, jugular vein, trachea and esophagus while also damaging a vertebrae.
Spitalli's ex-girlfriend, Kristina Baltrimaviciene, 30, said she and Huseynli were leaving her apartment on the 7700 block of Wildwood Court in Darien, at 12:25 a.m. on Nov. 17, 2012. Spitalli, whom she had lived with earlier in the year, appeared from the darkness demanding money.
She said she told him she had no money and to not cause any problems. After a brief pushing match between the men, Spitalli departed.
But, Baltrimaviciene said, he quickly reappeared.
"I turned around and (Spitalli) wrapped his arms around (Huseynli's) neck. I raised my hand up and felt a sharp pain in my fingers," she testified through a Russian interpreter. "I felt hot blood hit me and I told (Huseynli) to run. He ran toward the front of the building and fell down."
At that point, she saw Spitalli holding the kitchen knife that had cut her.
"I started screaming but he told me to shut up or he was going to kill me, and he pulled me to his car" she said. "He said he was now going to kill both of us but I told him 'I have a child. You have a child. Think about that.'"
Baltrimaviciene said Spitalli drove around Darien, holding the knife, for some time before she convinced him to "get rid of it" near the intersection of 91st Street and Clarendon Hills Road in Darien.