A Colorado man was convicted Thursday of killing his spouse after prosecutors say he posed as her ex-boyfriend and stalked her.
Together with his marriage falling aside, prosecutors stated Daniel Krug, 44, determined to play “puppet grasp” by scaring his spouse after which attempting to win her again by defending her from the pretend stalking, uniting them towards a standard menace.
Kristil Krug, a biochemical engineer, saved a log monitoring the more and more threatening texts and emails that urged she was being watched. As police investigated the messages, prosecutors stated Daniel Krug started to understand that he may face legal expenses and commenced plotting how you can kill his spouse to silence her and since she didn’t need to be with him anymore.
Prosecutors stated he waited for her to return to their suburban Denver dwelling on Dec. 14, 2023, after taking two of their youngsters to highschool after which knocked her unconscious and stabbed her within the coronary heart.
“He didn’t love her. He hated her. Take into consideration what he did to her,” Senior Deputy District Lawyer Kate Armstrong stated throughout closing arguments Wednesday.
On the time of the killing, the ex-boyfriend was an eight-hour drive away in Utah, the place he was dwelling, in response to investigators.
The protection harassed there was no bodily proof linking Daniel Krug to the violent killing, noting that there was no blood present in his automobile or his garments, which his daughter stated have been the identical he was sporting when he drove her to the bus cease that morning. None of Daniel Krug’s DNA was discovered on the scene, although partial DNA from an unknown individual was discovered on her neck, the protection stated.
Daniel Krug’s attorneys alleged that sloppy police work had did not hold Kristil Krug secure earlier than she was killed after which bungled the investigation into her dying. The detective who investigated the stalking that Kristil Krug had first reported in October 2023 was lazy and incompetent, they stated. The protection additionally harassed that police failed to check Kristil Krug’s telephone for fingerprints although they alleged Daniel Krug despatched texts from it after killing her.
Shortly after the time when authorities stated Krug killed his spouse, he was at his ordinary espresso store shopping for his morning latte. He complained that he had been given an iced drink as a substitute of a sizzling one and waited for a substitute. Throughout closing arguments, protection lawyer Philip Geigle questioned whether or not that’s one thing a “cold-blooded killer” would hassle to do.
Prosecutors stated that he wished to be seen as “cool as a cucumber” getting his common morning espresso earlier than heading to work and likewise seemingly deliberate to put on gloves so he wouldn’t depart any DNA linking him to the killing.
In keeping with investigators, the e-mail account that was used to ship messages to Kristil Krug was created on the pc community at Daniel Krug’s office. A burner telephone used to ship a few of the texts, bought with a present card registered to Daniel Krug, was typically discovered to have been in the identical common location as his telephone, Armstrong stated.
Three of the house’s surveillance cameras, which Kristil Krug’s mom stated she put in due to the current stalking, weren’t recording when she was discovered, in response to Daniel Krug’s arrest affidavit. The one within the storage was coated with tape. The protection stated the tape additionally had DNA from an unknown supply.
