Chesterfield Man Found Guilty of Second-Degree Murder in Wife's Death

A jury found a Chesterfield Township man guilty Thursday of a lesser offense of second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of his wife, according to Macomb County Circuit Court records.

Leonart Nazarko, 43, was initially charged with first-degree murder for the Dec. 5, 2009, attack of his 41-year-old wife, Andoneta Nazarko, at their home on Dove Lane. His lawyer Carl Marlinga, former Macomb County prosecutor, argued that he should be held accountable for the death on a lesser offense because of his state of mind during the attack. Prosecutors maintained the crime was premeditated.

Nazarko's children, who were home when their father brutally stabbed their mother, were as witnesses in the murder at trial. Since their mother's death, they have been adopted by a Michigan family, Marlinga said.

Sentencing is scheduled at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 19 before Judge Matthew Switalski in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens.