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Zazar appears in court, charged in wife's slayingLADYSMITH, Jan 04, 2013 (The Leader-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for Thursday in Rusk County Court for a rural Hawkins man charged in Rusk County Court with first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting death of his wife. Donald J. Lazar, 66, who faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted, appeared Friday in court and waived the reading of the criminal complaint. He also indicated he understood the charge. A preliminary hearing is used to determine if there is enough evidence that a felony was committed by Lazar. Lazar is accused of killing his wife, Darlene Lazar, 65, on Sunday. She died of multiple gunshot wounds, including a shot in the head, according to court and police records. Donald Lazar told police he shot his wife once in the side while she was on the phone with police, saying he didn't think it was loaded and only wanted to scare here. He then reloaded the .22-caliber rifle and shot her in the head. He told police he "thought that because he was already in trouble for shooting Darlene that he might as well shoot her again." Lazar is being held in the Rusk County Jail on a $500,000 cash bond. He called police after shooting his wife the second time. The two had a history of domestic incidents and argued Sunday about how they were going to pay property taxes, according reports. ___ (c)2013 the Leader-Telegram (Eau Claire, Wis.) Visit the Leader-Telegram (Eau Claire, Wis.) at www.leadertelegram.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |