A King County Superior Court judge has denied a defense motion that he recuse himself from tomorrow’s sentencing of Martin “David” Pietz, who was convicted last month of second-degree murder for killing his wife in January 2006.
The defense motion, filed by attorney David Allen on Oct. 24, argued that Judge Michael Hayden violated a rule of judicial conduct by meeting privately with jurors Oct. 14 soon after they found Pietz guilty of strangling his wife, Nicole Pietz, and leaving her naked body in a wooded area in Burien.
The state objected to the defense motion, calling it baseless. Hayden denied the motion last week.
Pietz, 36, is to be sentenced by Hayden on Thursday morning and faces a standard-range sentence of roughly 10 to 18 years. The state is recommending Pietz be sentenced to a top-of-the-range sentence, arguing that Pietz violated his wife’s trust by attacking her in their home and also caused her family undue anguish by misleading them about her whereabouts for 16 months.
Pietz was arrested and charged in connection with his wife’s death in March 2012, more than six years after he killed her, all the while telling her friends and family she had relapsed into drug addiction and had simply disappeared.
The defense’s sentencing memo was not publicly available today, so it is unknown what sentence Pietz’s defense team will recommend during Thursday’s sentencing hearing.
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