Woman Wants Charges Dropped

A Mt. Laurel woman accused of helping her husband flee to Europe to escape murder charges should not be made to stand trial now that he has committed suicide in his French jail cell, the woman's lawyer said.

Paul Eduardovich Goldman, 39, hanged himself with a bedsheet in his jail cell in the French Alps on Sunday, rendering moot prosecutors' attempts to return him to Pennsylvania to face murder charges in the Dec. 29 stabbing death of his lover, Faina "Fay" Zonis. Shamed by their son's alleged crime, Goldman's parents committed suicide in January.

Goldman, a New Jersey resident, left a suicide note in which he blamed himself for his parents' deaths and his wife's legal troubles, but he did not admit killing Zonis.

"My mama and papa was killed because of me. My wife in a prison in the USA. My son will be growing with strangers. ... I punished myself," he wrote in the note, which was released by Bucks County District Attorney Diane Gibbons.

Despite her husband's death, Irina Sapiro will still face charges that she helped Goldman elude police, Gibbons said Tuesday.

Sapiro's lawyer urged Gibbons to reconsider, saying that prosecuting Sapiro at this point would fail to serve "any legitimate societal purpose."

"It's impossible to even comprehend what she's had to go through the last three or four months because of what this man has done," Andrew Baratta said. "It's not as if she hasn't been punished for whatever mistakes she may have made."

Sapiro, the mother of a critically ill toddler, faces up to 14 years in prison and eventual deportation if convicted. She is free on bail and staying with relatives in Philadelphia.

Baratta said Sapiro was "extremely upset" when she learned Tuesday morning that her husband had killed himself.

Last week, a French court ruled that Goldman could be extradited to Pennsylvania to face first-degree murder charges in the death of Zonis, 42, a mortgage processor found dead in her Upper Southampton Township office. Authorities have not explained what the motive might have been, but said Zonis and Goldman exchanged 15 cell phone calls in the hours before her slaying.

After Goldman went on the lam, Sapiro, of Mount Laurel, N.J., allegedly covered for him by telling police that the couple was shopping on the night of the killing. Goldman's parents also helped, accompanying him and Sapiro to a New York airport where Goldman flew to Germany on Jan. 7, authorities have said.

Police caught Goldman about two weeks later, in Grenoble, southern France.

After Goldman fled to Europe, his parents, Edward Goldman, 66, and Inessa Lemashova, 63, committed suicide by slitting their wrists, leaving a note in which they could not live with the shame of their son's conduct. Police found their bodies on Jan. 13.

Goldman's lawyer, Arnaud Levy-Soussan, said Tuesday that Goldman learned just last week that his parents had killed themselves. He said the news probably added to Goldman's distress.

Levy-Soussan said his client had already attempted to kill himself once and was supposed to be under constant surveillance. "But that wasn't the case. I think French authorities made a big mistake. That is clear," he said.

French authorities defended themselves, saying the prison could not have watched him 24 hours a day.

Sapiro, Goldman, Zonis and her husband all emigrated to the United States in the early 1990s from the former Soviet Union. Friends have said Goldman met Zonis when he took her computer class about 10 years ago and that at some point, they become lovers.

Reacting to Goldman's suicide, Zonis' husband, Alex, told Gibbons that he "believes justice was done," the prosecutor said.

Baratta, Sapiro's lawyer, predicted the case against his client would be delayed indefinitely "to let the developments shake out."

Sapiro's 2-year-old son, Alan, is hospitalized with a variety of medical problems. He is a U.S. citizen, but his mother is not. If Sapiro is convicted or pleads guilty to a crime, she could be deported, Baratta said.

"What happened to her was bad for everyone," said Sapiro's sister, Marina Lipkovskaya. "We will try to be near her all the day, and we will help her to cope with everything."

But Gibbons said Sapiro isn't the victim in this case.

"She attempted to deny (the Zonis family) their day in court, and that hurt them to a great degree," Gibbons said. "She needs a little more compassion for them and a little less sympathy for herself, and then she can be a mother to this child who is sick."

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Author: NBC10/AP