BERKELEY, Calif. – The ex-wife of a slain University of California, Berkeley professor is accused of orchestrating his killing and convincing her current boyfriend to carry out the attack in Greece, according to local news reports.
Victim’s ex-wife was allegedly the mastermind
What they’re saying:
Greek outlet ProtoThema reported that the woman, who has not been publicly named, persuaded her boyfriend to shoot and kill 43-year-old Przemysław Jeziorski on July 4 in a suburb of Athens.
Jeziorski was ambushed by a masked gunman outside his ex-wife’s residence just moments before he was supposed to pick up the twins he shared with her.
He was shot multiple times in broad daylight.
Authorities arrested the woman and her boyfriend, whose name has also not been released.
Prior to convincing her boyfriend to carry out the killing, the woman allegedly asked him to hire hitmen, according to ProtoThema.
The duo ultimately involved two Albanian nationals and a Bulgarian man, who are accused of transporting the boyfriend to the crime scene and giving him the weapon used to kill Jeziorski.
Those three men are facing charges as accomplices.
Scheduled custody hearing
Dig deeper:
Jeziorski was an associate professor of marketing at the Haas School of Business. He lived in the Bay Area and regularly traveled to Greece during the summer to visit his children. He had planned to bring them to visit family in his native Poland.
After he and his ex-wife divorced, she relocated to Greece with their twins.
Jeziorski’s friend, Chemtai Mungom, said he was also in Greece for a custody hearing.
“He had planned to be in the courts that week for a custody conversation and hearing,” she said. “And as his lawyers will say, he’s had some challenges with that, trying to get to an agreement.”
Mungo said Jeziorski’s children meant the world to him.
“He loved his kids and he liked to spend as much time with them,” Mungo said. “He was going through a difficult process of separating from somebody, but he really tried to center his kids.”
His younger brother, Łukasz Jeziorski, said in a statement to KTVU: “Przemek’s studies and family were very important to him. He cared about his family. He fought for them until the end.”
“We were like twins,” he added. “We understood each other without words. We had the same interests; we both listened to metal music and watched the same movies and TV shows.”
Jeziorski’s family said he fulfilled his dream last year of purchasing a home in San Francisco.
His death came about a month after the passing of his father in Poland.
A fundraising page has been set up to assist with legal efforts both abroad and in the United States, as well as the repatriation of his remains to Poland.
The Source: ProtoThema, previous KTVU reporting.