After a third trial, a Baltimore County jury found James A. Kulbicki guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Gina Nueslein more than three decades ago.
Jurors deliberated for less than half an hour Tuesday before returning the same verdict as juries that tried the 31-year-old case in 1993 and 1995. They also found Kulbicki guilty of using a gun in the commission of a crime.
Prosecutors said Kulbicki, 68, a former Baltimore Police Department sergeant who began an affair with Gina Nueslein at age 19 and got her pregnant, killed her on Jan. 9, 1993, to avoid paying child support for their son. pay. A hearing in a paternity case was scheduled for January 13, 1993.
Nueslein was 22 when she was found dead in Gunpowder Falls State Park. She left for work at Royal Farms on the afternoon of January 9 and never arrived at work. Barbara Clay testified last week that she saw a man in his 30s driving a pickup truck to the park when she left that afternoon, and later identified him as Kulbicki.
During his closing argument, Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Fuller showed photos of Nueslein lying dead on the ground the next morning, wearing a pink jacket over her store uniform. Her pants had been pulled down — as if her body had been dragged there, Fuller said — and there was blood on her face.
“He executed a defenseless woman, the mother of his child,” Fuller said.
Kulbicki had a clear motive, he said: “His double life was about to be exposed.”
An autopsy revealed that Nueslein had been shot in the back of the head, causing an “evulsion,” or a rupture so forceful that chunks of bone were pushed out of her body, Fuller said. Investigators found a bullet fragment in her head and “metal fragments” in Kulbicki’s Ford pickup.
Inside the truck, which investigators said smelled as if it had been cleaned, police also found skull fragments that matched Nueslein’s DNA — with an increasing degree of certainty as it was retested over the years.
A denim jacket police found in Kulbicki’s closet had Nueslein’s blood on its sleeve, Fuller said. A photo shown to the jury showed the cover peeking out in a closet, while a large red spot was visible on the left sleeve.
Natalie Finegar, Kulbicki’s attorney, argued Tuesday that the scientific evidence that made up the case was based on “faulty foundations” and assumptions.
Finegar suggested that police had botched the chain of custody search for certain evidence and that a Smithsonian expert had assumed the fragments found in the truck were human bone without proving their composition. Over the years, forensic scientists have retested DNA samples as techniques advanced, but Finegar said the original samples could have been mixed together or misinterpreted.
“We retested something from the original premise that may or may not have been correct,” she said.
Finegar also said Kulbicki’s alibi witnesses had no reason to lie decades later. She said Kulbicki’s wife already knew about his affair and that he had already withdrawn $1,800 to give to Nueslein at the upcoming child support hearing.
Finegar, Fuller and Deputy District Attorney John Cox declined to comment on the verdict Tuesday.
Kulbicki’s sentencing is set for January 17. Prosecutors are asking for a life sentence without parole, the same sentence he received after his previous convictions.
Kulbicki did not visibly react as the verdict was read, but Nueslein’s sisters began to cry.
Some of the Baltimore County sheriff’s deputies present in the courtroom Tuesday may have been familiar faces to Kulbicki. Many county sheriff’s deputies are retired Baltimore police officers, and at least one had served with him.
Another retired city official sat in the front row, close to the jury box: Gina Nueslein’s uncle, Victor Gearhart, who accompanied his niece to fill out paperwork for her child support case in the 1990s, is a retired police lieutenant Baltimore.
Kulbicki replaced Gearhart as sergeant during the midnight shift in the Northwest District in 1992, shortly after his promotion. Gearhart described Tuesday’s verdict as “pure relief.”
“I’ll never forget it. I will never forget what happened as long as I live,” Gearhart said in an interview.
Kulbicki’s arrest was shocking to the department, which was initially divided over his innocence, he said.
“There were those who believed him – they were his friends. Most don’t. The [Fraternal Order of Police] voted not to provide him with any support, financial or legal,” Gearhart said.
“People said, how could a police officer do something like that? He was not a good police officer in my opinion, he was a lazy police officer and that is why evidence was found,” he said, detailing the ways in which Kulbicki had failed to conceal the crime scene or cover up his involvement.
This jury did not hear ballistics testimony in Kulbicki’s first two trials that relied on a since-discredited bullet analysis method, nor from a ballistics examiner who later admitted he lied about his training and subsequently died by suicide. These issues prompted a court to overturn the 1995 ruling.
However, jurors did hear from other witnesses who are now dead, with their testimonies from previous hearings read aloud during the trial. One of those witnesses was Geraldine Nueslein, Gina Nueslein’s mother.
Both Geraldine and her husband Joe “died without closure,” said Mary Peitersen, Gearhart’s wife.
Geraldine was a devout Catholic who could not understand Kulbicki’s actions or denials, she said.
“Geraldine could not understand why Kulbicki would put his immortal soul in danger,” Peitersen said. “She was tormented until her death.”
