GUILTY WI - Roxana Abrudan, 36, dies in hatchet attack, Mount Pleasant, 19 Nov 2014

Mount Pleasant police initially were called at 8:23 p.m. Wednesday on a report of a domestic-related assault at a local residence. A witness heard someone screaming and saw a body being dragged across the home's front lawn to a vehicle, which then drove off...

Police said investigators learned that the woman had been struck with a hatchet after she pulled a vehicle into the home's driveway. Authorities said she had been at the Mount Pleasant home of a friend in order to hide from her husband.

About four minutes after the initial call, the Racine County Communications Center received a second call from a person at a Super 8 Motel reporting that a woman there was bleeding from the head. Patrol officers and the South Shore Fire Department responded, finding the couple there... The woman, police said, was taken by a helicopter to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, where she died from her injuries at 10 p.m.

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Racine County prosecutors charged Cristian Loga-Negru, 38, of Arlington Heights, Ill., with first-degree intentional homicide, mayhem and kidnapping in the Wednesday night attack on Roxana E. Abrudan. His wife was 36 years old and lived in Arlington Heights, but she had been staying with her boss and his wife at their Mount Pleasant home for the past month to hide from Loga-Negru, according to his criminal complaint. The complaint states the couple married July 14 and Loga-Negru began physically abusing his wife soon after.

In asking during Loga-Negru’s initial appearance in court that bond be withheld, Racine County District Attorney Rich Chiapete called the hatchet-attack killing “heinous, shocking and horrific.” He said Loga-Negru — who has Romanian citizenship but also might have dual U.S. citizenship — spent the past month searching for his wife, planning the attack, and then hunting her down.

“He was lying in wait in that rented vehicle with binoculars and a hatchet,” Chiapete said during the hearing.

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Cristian Loga-Negru stood in the doorway of his motel room Wednesday night in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, covered in blood. His father, Marius, had just flown in from Romania to deal with his troubled son. He asked Cristian what had happened.

"I killed Roxana," Cristian said of his wife of only four months, according to authorities in a bond hearing Friday in Racine County court. Cristian said her barely breathing body was still downstairs in a rented SUV.

The exchange was among the gruesome details of the violent end of Roxana Abrudan's life revealed in the bond hearing for Loga-Negru, 38.

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A competency hearing for a man accused of killing his estranged wife with a hatchet has been delayed...

Loga-Negru, who has two law degrees, had intended to defend himself in court Thursday but changed his mind. The judge said he must retain counsel by Jan. 19.

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The court case against a man accused of killing his estranged wife with a hatchet is moving forward...

Though his competency was earlier questioned, a doctor's report was released Friday finding Loga-Negru competent...

Loga-Negru remains jailed without bail ahead of a preliminary hearing, which is scheduled for later this month.

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In a narrative of abuse that’s become all too familiar, Abrudan had called the cops, had them kick her husband out of their Arlington Heights apartment, filled out an order of protection and even fled the state to hide.

None of it mattered, as Loga-Negru allegedly hunted her down in a small town in Wisconsin and killed her with a hatchet.

Police records obtained by the Sun-Times paint a harrowing picture of the final months of Abrudan’s life and her struggle to escape Loga-Negru...

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Local authorities encountered an Arlington Heights man at least a half-dozen times before he was accused of brutally killing his wife with a hatchet in Wisconsin last year, newly released police records show.

Beginning in March, police were called multiple times to incidents involving the couple. There were claims of a suicide attempt, threats, suspicious incidents, domestic trouble, battery, verbal abuse, trespassing, stalking, a hidden gun and an order of protection, according to Arlington Heights police records.

But Cristian Loga-Negru, 38, was never arrested, nor was he charged with any crimes in Arlington Heights, where he lived with his at-times-estranged girlfriend-turned-wife Roxana Abrudan, 36.

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A Racine County judge on Monday scheduled a jury trial to begin Feb. 1 for Christian Loga-Negru, 38, who could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted in the Nov. 19 slaying of Roxana Abrudan.

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The start of a trial for an Arlington Heights man accused of murdering his wife with a hatchet in November 2014 in Wisconsin has been delayed so he can undergo a mental evaluation...

On Tuesday, Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz granted the evaluation and set a review hearing for Feb. 25.

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Cristian M. Loga-Negru, 39, of Arlington Heights, pleaded no contest to first-degree intentional homicide in the Nov. 19, 2014, slaying...

Loga-Negru still will go on trial. Instead of jurors being asked to decide if Loga-Negru is guilty or innocent in the hatchet-attack slaying of his wife, Racine County Circuit Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz will face just one question. That is whether Loga-Negru had a mental disease or some other mental condition that left him unable to understand that his actions were wrong the day he allegedly killed his wife after tracking her down in Racine County...

Loga-Negru’s trial is set to begin on July 11 and could span one to two days, although Gasiorkiewicz blocked off three.

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A Racine County judge ruled Wednesday that an Arlington Heights man was not legally insane when he attacked and murdered his estranged wife with a hatchet in 2014.

After two days of testimony earlier this week, Loga-Negru's attorneys argued he was not guilty by reason of insanity because he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or symptoms of a mood disorder.

"That implication ... is rejected as not being credible by this court," Racine County Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz said in his ruling Wednesday.

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An Arlington Heights man has been sentenced to life in prison for the 2014 hatchet slaying of his estranged wife.

"You asked for hope. Your father asked for humanity. What hope does Roxana have?" Racine County Circuit Judge Eugene asked Loga-Negru.

Loga-Negru, a Romanian immigrant and businessman, apologized in court. He said he has been painted as a villain but added, "A villain cannot cry every night."

Enz told the court Wednesday he hopes Loga-Negru "thinks every day of his life about what he did and what he took away from this woman."

Loga-Negru may be eligible for release in 30 years.

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