Staten Island, NY: Grasmere man, who served jailtime in connection with wife's shooting 1996 death, arrested again for allegedly threatening to kill girlfriend

Published: Monday, August 16, 2010, 4:31 PM Updated: Tuesday, August 17, 2010, 7:29 AM

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Grasmere man who served prison time in connection with the fatal shooting of his wife in 1996 is now accused of threatening to kill his current girlfriend - just a few months after he was charged with choking her and throwing a chair at her.
Raymond Stolpinski, 43, was released from prison in 2007 after serving more than seven years for manslaughter, in connection with the shooting of his wife.

At left, Raymond Stolpinski is shown at the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility in 2005. At right, he’s led out of the 122 Police Precinct stationhouse in New Dorp in 1997.
On Friday, police again arrested Stolpinski, charging him with showing up at his girlfriend’s New Dorp Beach home the night prior, threatening her and breaking her cell phone. “His girlfriend says that he threatened to shoot her with a gun,” a law enforcement source said.
Stolpinski also called the woman the next morning and told her, “Meet me at my mother’s house,” according to court papers. Stolpinski, who lives on the 100 block of Windemere Road, is barred by a court order from contacting the woman, after he was arrested on May 28 and accused of assaulting her.
In that incident, the woman, who was living in Great Kills at the time, got into an argument with Stolpinski in her home after he questioned her about a car ride she had taken, according to a law enforcement source.
The 5 foot 8 inch, 250 pound Stolpinski then hurled a chair at her, then grabbed her around the neck, police allege. She suffered swelling and bruising of the hand and wrist when she blocked the chair, and her neck was scratched and swollen, according to court papers. He was released on $1,000 bail after being charged with misdemeanor assault and harassment.
The new arrest brings two more misdemeanor charges - second-degree criminal contempt and fourth-degree criminal mischief, said William J. Smith, a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan.
Stolpinski was arraigned on Saturday in Stapleton Criminal Court, where his bail was set at $2,500 bond, $1,000 cash until his next appearance on Sept. 27.
“He vehemently denies the allegations leveled against him and he will defend himself vigorously,” said defense attorney John M. Murphy Jr., whose office represents Stolpinski.
In February 2000, Stolpinski pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in connection with the Nov. 4, 1996, death of his wife, Elizabeth.
He accepted an Alford plea, meaning he did not admit to the killing but pleaded guilty because he believed there might be sufficient evidence to convict him at trial and he feared a stiffer prison term.
Mrs. Stolpinski, a 26-year-old mother with a 6-week-old daughter, was found dead in a bedroom of the couple’s Dongan Hills home with a bullet wound of the head. The couple’s baby was lying in a bassinet and there was no evidence of an intruder.
Stolpinski and his supporters contended that she took her own life in the throes of postpartum depression.