Kistler sets schedule for shared info in Podnebennyy murder trial

Prosecution and defense had different ideas about sharing information in a hearing for a homicide case Monday.

The two sides in the Vladimir Podnebennyy homicide case met for a pretrial conference and a motion hearing. Podnebennyy is charged with first- and third-degree murder and possession of instruments of crime in the October stabbing death of his estranged wife, Natalya Podnebennaya, in the parking lot of their College Township townhouse.

Centre County Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Foster told President Judge Thomas King Kistler that the defense’s motion to compel the DA’s office to produce discovery had been handled.

Podnebennyy’s attorney Karen Muir disagreed. She went through a litany of items she said had not been turned over in a recent delivery of evidence and information released by the prosecution, including transcripts of interviews with Podnebennyy, a Kazakhstan native who speaks Russian and requires an interpreter.

Another sticking point was autopsy photographs produced by District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller at a preliminary hearing. Muir made a point of protesting the fact that those photos were not turned over to the court reporter at the November hearing, saying she wanted to make sure the photos introduced later would be the same ones produced originally. Parks Miller pushed back on that, and the issue went to a hearing before Kistler, who directed the pictures be produced.

But Muir told Kistler that the documents she received were not the same. For one thing, she said, they were black and white and not color pictures as produced in court.

Foster claimed that was a non-issue, saying that Muir was welcome to view the originals in the possession of the DA’s office or that color copies could be produced.

That was Kistler’s order. He gave the DA’s office seven days to produce all of the pictures in its possession. He also directed that a schedule for production of other material be turned over within that time, and that any remaining discovery, like DNA reports that Foster said could take longer, be shared as soon as they are received.

The prosecution scored a win with a continuance, the second time they have reset the clock on Podnebennyy’s case. Muir protested, but Kistler gave Foster the delay she requested, although he did say it would be the last one he wanted to see. Foster maintained the prosecution has a legal right to one year to bring the case to trial.

This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 9:42 PM with the headline "Kistler sets schedule for shared info in Podnebennyy murder trial."