NORWICH – The prosecution’s testimony in the trial of alleged murderer Peter Wlasiuk wrapped up Monday, with the trial now moving on to its second phase beginning at 9 a.m. today in the Chenango County Courthouse.

Wlasiuk – first charged with second degree murder in 2002 – is accused of killing his wife, Patricia, on April 3 of that year at their Oxford home, later engineering what the Chenango County District Attorney’s Office is calling a staged accident at Guilford Lake. Wlasiuk has twice been convicted of the class A-1 felony, both times sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison. Both convictions have since been appealed, in 2006 and 2011, respectively.

Wlasiuk first told authorities he and Patricia were travelling east on County Road 35 in the Town of Guilford when she lost control of his 1998 GMC pick-up truck, swerving to miss a deer and veering into Guilford Lake. He later changed his story, stating Patricia had purposely driven the truck into the lake as the couple argued.

According to Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride, both stories are false, and Wlasiuk’s motives were simple: an unhappy marriage, a three-way love triangle with another woman and an attempt to collect on a $100,000 life insurance policy Wlasiuk had purchased for his wife months prior to her death.