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Police have charged a State College man with first-degree murder for fatally shooting his wife Sunday after a family argument.
Alois Aaron Kudlach, 49, allegedly told police he was defending himself from a possibly fatal attack when he shot his wife, Nuria Kudlach, three times in their College Township home. But forensic investigation revealed Nuria Kudlach was facing to the side when her husband filed the fatal shot – undercutting the self-defense story, police said.
In a five-page affidavit filed Monday, a day before Alois Kudlach’s Tuesday arraignment, police detailed the string of bitter family arguments that preceded the alleged murder, as well as Alois Kudlach’s 911 call that detailed the shooting.
“My wife came at me with a knife. I defended myself and everything is OK now,” Alois Kudlach told a 911 dispatcher. “Yes, and I shot her. … My wife is bleeding on the floor, just send the police.”
Police said the couple and their 19-year-old son, Alexander Kudlach, had been arguing for an hour in the family’s living room Sunday morning – apparently a common occurrence in the Kudlach home.
After a series of disputes that culminated with Nuria Kudlach destroying her husband’s phone and Alois Kudlach illegally recording their conversations, a divorce seemed inevitable and father and son were planning to move away, Alexander Kudlach told police.
In an interview with police, Alois Kudlach said he had met with his son and made coffee in their living room Sunday morning. While he was in the kitchen, he saw a knife had been left out and became concerned that his wife had removed it “for some reason,” he told officers.
When Nuria Kudlach awoke and went downstairs, an argument erupted about their son and the ways Alois Kudlach “enabled him.” According to Alois Kudlach, they began arguing about the knife, and when his wife left for the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, he became concerned that she would grab the weapon.
“(Alois Kudlach) became concerned that she was going to grab the knife and hurt both he and his son, so he … retrieved his pistol from his book bag,” an officer wrote.
Alois Kudlach then claimed he entered the kitchen, where his wife brandished the knife and stepped toward him. He stepped back, he told police, then shot her once.
“She looked at him in disbelief, but continued to hold the knife in her hand so he fired again,” police wrote, recounting Alois Kudlach’s version of events. “He had no recollection of firing the third shot.”
Police said Alois Kudlach never claimed he challenged his wife or ordered her to back away: “He just shot because he was afraid,” he allegedly told investigators.
Alexander Kudlach, who was outside the kitchen at the time, later told police he never heard mention of a knife before the shots rang out. Neither father nor son approached their wife and mother or check her body as she lay in the kitchen in a puddle of blood, police said.
After the shooting, Alois Kudlach called 911 and waited with his son on the porch until police arrived. Officers found three shell casings in the kitchen and a .45-caliber pistol on a table, according to the Centre County district attorney’s office.
Despite his self-defense claims, an autopsy allegedly revealed that Nuria Kudlach’s three bullet wounds – in her, spine, abdomen and face – had originated on her side, indicating she wasn’t approaching her husband when he fired.
Alois Kudlach’s other claims didn’t appear to hold up either, police said. He said his wife had issued threats in a secretly recorded conversation and in Facebook posts, but an investigation revealed no such threats, police said.
His surreptitious 49-minute recording of a fight with his wife earned Alois Kudlach an additional charge of illegal wiretapping, according to court documents.
He faces charges of first-degree murder, third-degree murder, aggravated assault and illegally intercepting a conversation. Police apprehended Alois Kudlach on Tuesday and held him in Centre County Prison, where he has been denied bail.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled Sept. 10, according to online court documents.
Mirror Staff Writer Ryan Brown is at 946-7457.