NORWICH – Chenango County Sheriff’s Office Undersheriff James Lloyd – the agency’s sergeant-detective in April of 2002 – took the stand Wednesday as the prosecution’s testimony in the case against accused murderer Peter Wlasiuk continues.

Twice convicted of second degree murder – a class A-1 felony – it’s alleged that Wlasiuk smothered his wife, Patricia, on April 3, 2002, at their Oxford home. According to District Attorney Joseph McBride, Wlasiuk then loaded his wife’s body into the bed of his 1998 GMC pick-up truck, later driving or pushing the vehicle into Guilford Lake in an effort to cover up the crime.

Wlasiuk, who successfully appealed both convictions – in 2006 and 2011, respectively – says he and his wife were driving east on County Road 35 in the Town of Guilford when Patricia lost control of the truck while trying to avoid a deer before veering into the lake. Following his arrest, Wlasiuk changed his story, stating he and Patricia had been arguing and she purposely drove the truck into the lake.

Both stories, according to McBride, are false, and Wlasiuk’s motives were threefold: an end to his unhappy marriage; an extra-marital affair, one that began as a three-way love triangle; and a $100,000 life insurance policy Wlasiuk had purchased for his wife just months before her death.