Man accused of murdering wife facing trial

The man accused of murdering his wife in College Township late last month is headed to trial.

State College police arrested Alois Kudlach, 49, last week after a shooting that left Nuria Kudlach, 51, dead. District Judge Allen Sinclair bound over first- and third-degree murder, aggravated assault and communications charges after a more than hour-long preliminary hearing Thursday afternoon.

An additional charge, a misdemeanor count of possession of an instrument of crime, was added by prosecutors Thursday and also bound over for trial.

The circumstances of the shooting were a matter of dispute at the hearing Thursday. District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller described the events of Aug. 30 as a “vicious murder,” but Kudlach told police when questioned after the incident that he shot his wife in self-defense. Karen Muir, Kudlach’s attorney, also asked Sinclair to drop the first-degree murder charge.

Only one witness was called Thursday, State College police Detective Ralph Ralston. Much of his testimony was based on the contents of the criminal complaint filed last week at Kudlach’s arraignment, but also included the findings of an autopsy report conducted after the shooting.

State College police responded to Kudlach’s home at 310 Gregor Way on Aug. 30 after Kudlach called 911. The call was played in court Thursday. Kudlach calmly told the dispatcher that his wife came at him with a knife in the family’s kitchen and he shot her.

Investigators found that Nuria Kudlach had been shot three times with a .45 caliber pistol and was declared dead on the scene.

Detectives interviewed Alois, who reported that Nuria had taken the knife out and placed it on the kitchen table that morning, which concerned him and he grabbed the pistol from another room and carried it in his pocket out of concern for his safety. He said he shot her when she grabbed the knife and “stepped toward him” when he returned to the kitchen, then fired again when she didn’t drop the knife, according to court documents.

Parks Miller blasted the self-defense claim Thursday, citing the autopsy report and pauses between the gunshots.

Ralston said that the examiner that conducted the autopsy said it would have been unlikely that someone could have held onto a knife after being shot, and the third, fatal shot had a downward trajectory. Ralston also said a neighbor reported that he heard the first shot, followed by a two-second pause, then the second shot, another pause, and then the third one.

The communications charge stems from an incident the night before the shooting. Kudlach is accused of hiding a cell phone in his underwear to record a 49-minute conversation with his wife.

Kudlach is held at Centre County Correctional Facility without bail. His next set of court appearances include pretrial conferences in November and jury selection in December.

He could face life in prison if convicted, Parks Miller said after the hearing.

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 12:03 AM with the headline "Man accused of murdering wife facing trial."