Suspect runs out of answers

For four hours, Patrick Bauldwin rambled, protested his innocence and challenged a detective about how long it took police to investigate the slaying of his former fiancee, Pasinetta Fitzgerald.

It was June 2009. Omaha police had just arrested Bauldwin in the February 2006 death of Fitzgerald, a 40-year-old day-care provider and actress in local theater productions.

But even as he sat in leg chains in a police interrogation room, Bauldwin proclaimed two things over and over:

— He didn’t kill Fitzgerald.

— He had no reason to kill Fitzgerald.

“I like women,” Bauldwin told Sgt. Todd Kozelichki. “I like, uh, to be around women. It’s, you know, I don’t have any ill for women. I have no need to be jealous of a woman. . . . I can get any woman. Not ‘get’ — I’m not like I’m a superstar, but I’m just like a nice guy. I exit away from nonsense.”

The jurors who will decide his fate watched a videotape of that interrogation during Bauldwin’s first-degree murder trial Thursday.

Initially, Kozelichki absorbed Bauldwin’s explanations, interjecting the occasional “OK” and “Mmm-hmm.” But four hours into the questioning, the tables flipped.

Kozelichki began to grill Bauldwin, citing details from his investigation. Tales of the couple’s tumultuous relationship. Contradictions in Bauldwin’s statements. Photos of cuts and scrapes on Bauldwin from the night Fitzgerald was found. Phone records. DNA results.

The 46-year-old Omahan didn’t confess. But the man who previously had all the answers suddenly ran out of them. He began to contradict himself — changing his story from “we never fought” to “we fought all the time.”

Bauldwin addressed the rumors that had dogged him since the slaying at Fitzgerald’s home near 41st and Lake Streets.

Bauldwin: “I’ve heard all this on the street.”

Kozelichki: “Heard what?”

Bauldwin: “That I’m jealous. I, I beat her. I uh, uh, uh, was overly possessive. I was this. I was that. No. There was nothing, uh, that would upset me about her. . . . That’s how I live. I don’t get upset about females enough — ‘specially enough to be sittin’ here in some shackles.”

Bauldwin said he couldn’t understand why it took police three years to conclude their investigation — an issue his lawyers also have raised.

“Nothing has changed from that weekend until now. I mean, nothing has come up. There’s no smoking gun. . . . I just hear theories about what happened to her,” Bauldwin said.

“’Cause you had my DNA that day; you had my, uh, pictures that day, and that woman is feisty so I know she fought somebody, but it wasn’t me.”

Sgt. Michelle Bang, who led the investigation, said the homicide unit was stretched thin at the time with some high-profile cases. Bang acknowledged making the “wrong call” to not run DNA tests on a key piece of evidence in the case: Fitzgerald’s blood-soaked pajama top.

As it turned out, the pajama top had blood from both Fitzgerald and Bauldwin on it. However, Bauldwin didn’t know that when he asked to speak with Kozelichki in June 2009.

“I didn’t do it,” Bauldwin told the cop. “I had love for that young lady. Even when we split up, there was no fights. I loved her. So, when you go home tonight and if you can sleep thinkin’ you got the right guy, knock yourself out. But I didn’t do it. (But) I understand your take on it. I know you think I’m guilty.”

Kozelichki: “You don’t know anything.”

Bauldwin: “I wouldn’t have to be sittin’ in shackles, Todd. . . . It seems like you guys have just picked me out because I’m the boyfriend and you got something to hold me on. ... But to wait (three years) — if there’s nothin’ under a rock, there’s nothin’ under the rock.”

Bit by bit, Kozelichki began to reveal some of what police had uncovered.

“I have phone records to show that you were blowing (up) her phone Saturday morning,” Kozelichki said. “I had 19 calls from the house to her cell phone. Nineteen. I would say that’s a little obsessive.”

Bauldwin: “Well, I beg to differ. . . . I beg to differ because all my relationships, that happens. If I don’t hear from you, I’m gonna keep tryin’.”

Kozelichki: “Well what does that tell me about you?”

Bauldwin: “Not that I’m a crazed maniac. That’s I care about who I’m with.”

Kozelichki: “I think you’re a little obsessive.”

Bauldwin: “Look, obsessive — she treated me the same way.”

Kozelichki then caught Bauldwin off-guard with a simple fact. After that flurry of 19 phone calls, Bauldwin didn’t call Fitzgerald again during the day and a half before her body was found.

Authorities say that’s for a simple reason: Fitzgerald was dead — and Bauldwin knew it.

Why no more phone calls? Kozelichki asked.

Bauldwin: “I’m gonna tell you why. No, I’m gonna tell you why. I’m gonna tell you why there’s no, no calls because the . . .”

His voice trailed off. He rapped his fist on the table, leaned back in his chair and sighed. “There’s a damn good reason why.”

Kozelichki: “Well that’s what I don’t understand. For someone who cares as much as you do about Pasinetta, to go 1½ days (and) not even find out how she’s doing, that makes me wonder. . . .”

Bauldwin: “Hear this, you know why? You know why? I’m not gonna tell (you). . . . My lawyer already knows why. There’s a, uh, uh, uh, a reason that will shut all that down. So go to something else, cause that’s shut down.”

Kozelichki did move on — to the DNA tests of the pajama top Fitzgerald was wearing. Two blood spots came back as Fitzgerald’s DNA and two came back as Bauldwin’s. A fifth spot was a mixture of both.

“Big Daddy,” Kozelichki said. “Listen to me. Guess what? Your blood — your blood is on the shirt she was wearing.”

Bauldwin stammered, claiming the two had sex.

Kozelichki: “Blood, Patrick, I’m talkin’ about blood.”

Bauldwin: “On her shirt?”

Kozelichki: “Yes.”

Bauldwin: “I doubt that.”

There also was the DNA on a pair of Bauldwin’s jeans. Authorities say Bauldwin’s blood was found inside the jeans and Fitzgerald’s blood was found on the outside.

Kozelichki: “Remember the jeans that we talked about? Those were found at the house.”

Bauldwin paused for a beat, then shook his head.

“They couldn’t have been,” he said. “If that was the case, I’da been in jail. You would have arrested me a long time ago.”

Shortly after, Kozelichki ended the interview. Another officer arrived to take Bauldwin to jail.

“How’s it going?” the officer asked as he escorted Bauldwin out.

“Man,” Bauldwin said softly. “My life just changed.”

« Crime/Courts

Share