'I Loved Her With All My Heart': Jury Doesn't Buy Darien Man's Story That Stabbing of Ex-Girlfriend's Boyfriend Was An Accident

Caption: Joseph Spitalli, 36, of Darien was found guilty of first-degree murder in the November 2012 stabbing death of Teymur Huseynli and the aggravated kidnapping of his ex-girlfriend by a DuPage County jury.

It took a jury just under three hours to convict a Darien man of nearly decapitating the boyfriend of his ex-lover on the front lawn of a Darien apartment complex in November 2012.

Joseph Spitalli, 36, was found guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping after a four-day jury trial on Friday afternoon.

From the beginning Spitalli tried to cast the killing as an accident, telling Darien police detectives that he had blacked out after changing his story several times, DuPage County prosecutor Cathleen DeLaMar said during closing arguments.

Sometime before midnight on Nov. 16, 2012, after weeks of stalking his former girlfriend, Kristina Baltrimaviciene, 28, also of Darien, and threatening her new boyfriend, 31-year-old Teymur Huseynli, of Skokie, Spitalli confronted the couple outside of Baltrimaviciene’s apartment on Wildwood Court.

An argument ensued between the two men, and, thinking it was over, Baltrimaviciene and Huseynli turned around and continued walking Baltrimaviciene’s dog. Spitalli lunged at Huseynil from behind, reached around his neck and slashed his throat with a five-inch steak knife.

“It was not an accident when he put a knife in his pocket and drove to her apartment. It was not an accident when he turned back and lunged at Teymur from behind and slit his throat,” DeLaMar said, arguing that the defendant be found guilty of first-degree murder. “In the middle of the night he confronted them, waited until Teymur’s back was turned and then went in for the slaughter.”

As Teymur lay on the ground bleeding to death, the prosecutor said, he regurgitated the last meal that he and Baltrimaviciene had shared watching movies in her apartment, where her young daughter was sleeping inside alone.

“As he pulled the knife across Teymur’s neck he went deeper and deeper, severing the carotid artery and trachea all the way to his spine,” DeLaMar conitnued.

Spitalli then forced into Baltrimaviciene a borrowed car, driving around Darien and threatening to kill her and her daughter if she screamed or told anyone what happened.

Traumatized and swearing on her young daughter’s life, she convinced Spitalli to throw the steak knife out the window, just to get the murder weapon out of the car.

“Still she had the wherewithal to remember where they were so she could tell police later,” DeLaMar said, showing the jury Baltrimaviciene’s bloody jacket.”

After driving to his apartment and later his parents’ home, Spitalli called 911 and ordered Baltrimaviciene to tell police she and Teymur were attacked by “two black guys.”

Darien police picked up Spitalli and Baltrimaviciene and brought them to the station. Further investigation revealed that Baltrimaviciene was not a battery victim, but that Spitalli had killed Huseynli and kidnapped Baltrimaviciene at knifepoint.

Telling police that he loved Baltrimaviciene “with all my heart,” he said that Kristina killed Teymur because he had been cheating on her. He changed his story again, telling detectives Baltrimaviciene grabbed his arm causing the knife to slide across Huseynli’s neck and that it had been an accident. Finally that he had blacked out. He told police he knew he’d be spending the rest of his life in jail, DeLaMar said

Spitalli’s attorney, Mark Lyons, argued that Spitalli be found guilty on lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter and unlawful restraint. There were no defensive wounds on Huseynli and Baltrimaviciene, and she rode with Spitalli after the stabbing.

“When Joseph got to the police station at 8 a.m. [Nov. 17, 2012] he certainly wasn’t telling the truth,” Lyons said. “Only through lengthy questioning did [police] get to the truth.”

Lyons argued that it was impossible to know what was inside Spitalli’s mind when he drove to Baltrimaviciene’s apartment, or that he was planning to kill.

“He’s not trying to relieve himself. He thinks he’s guilty, he blames himself at the same time he says he’s going to jail for the rest of his life,” Lyons said. “We’re not arguing for acquittal. We agree he performed the acts.”

As the jury filed into the Judge Daniel Guerin’s courtroom, Spitalli, wearing a black pinstriped suit, turned around and told his family he loved them. He bowed his head when the guilty verdicts were read.

The Darien man’s next court appearance is scheduled for December 3, for filing of post-trial motions and return of the pre-sentence report. At sentencing Spitalli faces a possible term of natural life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Asked if she had a comment leaving the courtroom after Spitalli’s guilty verdict, Baltrimaviciene said, “not today.”