CHARDON — Accused wife killer Alex V. Pfister, 34, of Claridon Township, waived a preliminary hearing Friday in Chardon Municipal Court on a felony murder charge. The murder case was bound over by Judge Mark Hassett to the Geauga County Common Pleas Court.
Geauga County Prosecutor David Joyce is expected to present the case to a grand jury soon. Pfister was arrested July 2 by Geauga County sheriff’s deputies for the fatal stabbing of his 30-year-old wife, Marileyda Pfister.
The day of the killing, Pfister called E-911 in Geauga County around 4:05 p.m. to report he stabbed his wife. Deputies responded, found his wife dying and arrested the husband. The killing took place at a duplex located at 11871 Aquilla Road in Claridon where Pfister lived alone.
The couple were reportedly separated. Marileyda and the couple’s three children had moved from the Aquilla Road home to the Painesville area in Lake County.
The victim was issued a civil protection order on June 27 to keep her husband away from her.
Investigators refused to reveal why the victim was at the Aquilla Road address with the couple’s children when the fatal stabbing took place.
Representing the defendant at Friday’s hearing was court appointed Geauga County Public Defender Robert Umholtz. The hearing before Hassett was delayed for more than a half hour as Umholtz met privately with the court’s assistant prosecutor, Dennis Coyne, and two Geauga County sheriff’s detectives, Juanita Vetter and Joseph Keough.
Pfister remains in Geauga County jail on a $500,000 bond since his arrest. Umholtz later said he did not seek any bond reduction at this time.
A co-worker of Pfister’s, Richard Conroy, of Mentor-on-the-Lake, spoke with reporters after the hearing. Conroy and Pfister are employed at Hall Chemical Co. in Wickliffe.
“After Alex got the civil protection order from the court he seemed very depressed,” Conroy said. “He was told by our employers to seek medical help if needed.”
Conroy said he knew Pfister did see a doctor and got some type of medication. “I don’t know what it (medication) was. He came back to work, then had to go back to the doctor to get the medicine under control,” he said.
Conroy attributes the prescribed medication Pfister was taking to the fatal stabbing.
“Alex and Marileyda seemed to argue some when I would visit their home. I don’t know...,” Conroy said shaking his head. “I think if it wasn’t for the medicine Alex was on, this may not have happened.”
There were no family members of the couple at Friday’s court proceedings. Conroy stated most of Pfister’s family live in California, where the couple previously lived.
The couple’s three children are temporarily staying with the victim’s relatives out-of-county, according to sheriff’s investigators.
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Murder case bound over
Alex Pfister is accused of fatally stabbing his wife
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