David Pietz: Nicole’s Murder, Trial, and Sentence

The David Pietz murder case is a Washington cold-case conviction: Martin “David” Pietz was found guilty of second-degree murder in October 2013 for strangling his wife, Nicole Pietz, in their Lynnwood condominium in January 2006, more than six years after the killing. He was sentenced to 220 months in state prison, roughly 18 years and four months. The case broke open only after improved cell tower analysis and a fresh DNA review placed him at key locations on the day Nicole disappeared.¹

Nicole Pietz’s Death

Nicole Pietz, 32, was last seen on the evening of January 27, 2006. Her husband called 911 at 10:20 p.m. the following night to report her missing, saying she had been gone when he woke that morning and suggesting she may have relapsed into drug addiction.² Nicole’s family and coworkers rejected that account. She had been sober for eight years and was scheduled to attend her eighth sobriety anniversary meeting the morning of January 28, which she never made.

On February 6, 2006, a man walking in a wooded area in Burien, Washington, found Nicole’s body. A forensic pathologist determined she had been dead for about a week. The cause of death was asphyxia due to manual strangulation, supported by deep bruising of the neck muscles and hemorrhaging in the eyes and on both sides of the throat.³ She also had blunt force bruising on her face, elbows, thighs, knees, and pelvis.

Why Detectives Suspected the Husband

David and Nicole Pietz had married on a beach in Maui in April 2002.⁴ By 2006 the marriage was in trouble. Four women eventually testified at trial that they had had sexual relationships with Pietz during the marriage, including one affair that began during his engagement.⁵ One former girlfriend, Renee Stewart, testified that Pietz had told her he twice slipped ecstasy into Nicole’s Red Bull to “loosen her up” for a threesome. On the night of January 27, 2006, Nicole told a coworker she knew her husband was having an affair, and she appeared upset.²

Pietz stood to collect a $38,000 employer-provided life insurance policy on his wife, and he asked about it at her funeral. Two weeks after Nicole’s body was found, he asked a coworker whether it was “too soon” to start dating. He failed a lie detector test shortly after the disappearance, refused a second, and hired a lawyer.⁶ There simply was not enough evidence to charge him at the time.

How the Cold Case Was Cracked

The file sat dormant until 2009, when the King County Sheriff’s Office formed a dedicated cold case unit funded by a federal grant.⁷ In 2010, Detectives Jake Pavlovich and Mike Mellis were assigned to the Pietz case and reworked the original evidence.⁴

Two technical advances changed the picture. Improved cell phone triangulation let detectives pinpoint where calls from Nicole’s phone had originated. A call placed from her phone at 11:50 a.m. on January 28, the day after she was last seen alive, hit a tower just 188 yards from the 24 Hour Fitness gym where Pietz worked. Surveillance footage showed him leaving his desk two minutes before that call.¹ Prosecutors would argue Pietz used Nicole’s phone to make it look like she was still alive.

DNA analysis of Nicole’s abandoned car turned up a second break. Pietz’s DNA was on the gearshift and steering wheel, and there was considerably more of his DNA than Nicole’s inside her own vehicle. The driver’s seat was set to a position inconsistent with her height.²

On March 21, 2012, detectives arrested Pietz, then 36, and charged him with second-degree murder. He was held on $1 million bail.⁶

Gael Schneider’s Campaign

During those six years, Nicole’s mother, Gael Schneider, ran what she called “psychological warfare” to keep the case alive. She called police on the 28th of every month to ask about progress. Detectives said she was “like clockwork.”⁴ She visited Pietz’s workplaces, once hand-delivering a note that read in part: “David, we’re planning to buy a house just a few minutes from here, and I will be in here every day to make your life as miserable as you’ve made mine.” She confronted him in front of bank coworkers, called him in the middle of the night, and on one Halloween left a blonde wig stained with red ink on his doorstep.

“I hate to think of myself as pit bull, but I was,” Schneider told CBS News. Detective Mellis later said her persistence helped keep the investigation alive.

The Trial

The monthlong trial began in September 2013 in King County Superior Court, with 58 witnesses called.⁸ Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kristin Richardson led the state’s case and acknowledged from the outset that there were no eyewitnesses and limited DNA evidence. The case was almost entirely circumstantial.⁹

Richardson argued that Pietz strangled Nicole during an argument in their condo the night of January 27, 2006, then moved her body to Burien. She described him as “cold and callous,” controlling, and obsessed with sex.¹⁰ The prosecution’s circumstantial evidence included:

Nicole was found wearing a dental night guard she reportedly never wore outside the home, suggesting she was killed while preparing for bed, not while out seeking drugs.²
Pietz told police Nicole left with her wedding ring, but the ring was found at home soaking in cleaning solution.
An AT&T radio frequency engineer testified there was a 90 to 95 percent probability that the January 28 call from Nicole’s phone originated near Pietz’s gym, and surveillance placed him away from his desk at the time.¹¹
Pietz’s DNA on the gearshift and door handle of Nicole’s car, with the driver’s seat set to a height that didn’t match hers.
Surveillance footage of Pietz buying Drano and gloves the night of Nicole’s death.
Toxicology showed only trace amounts of oxycodone in Nicole’s system, undermining the drug theory.

Gael Schneider testified and addressed Pietz directly from the stand: “I just said he murdered my daughter. I’ve cried my brains out every day for seven years… If he can’t take being confronted by a 72-year-old woman, he’s not much of a man.”¹²

Defense attorney David Allen conceded the infidelity but argued that being unfaithful did not make Pietz a killer, and that prosecutors had built a case on character rather than proof.⁹ The defense floated alternative theories, including a stranger killing and a “drug deal gone bad,” the latter supported by coworker Ashley Sauter.¹³ Defense attorney Mark Geragos also challenged the cell tower evidence, pointing out that technicians had been dispatched to fix performance problems at the relevant cell sector the day before the January 28 call. Pietz did not testify.

Verdict and Sentence

On October 14, 2013, the jury found Pietz guilty of second-degree murder. Sentencing was held on November 7, 2013, before Superior Court Judge Michael Hayden. Pietz remained silent when given the chance to speak. His parents described him as a hard worker and a good person. Gael Schneider offered her forgiveness.

Judge Hayden said he was particularly struck by the testimony about Pietz spiking his recovering-addict wife’s drink with ecstasy. “You don’t spike a former addict’s drink with drugs if you care about them,” the judge told Pietz. “You did that for your own personal sexual satisfaction, and I found that absolutely abhorrent. And criminal.”⁸ He imposed 220 months, the high end of the standard range under Washington state law.

Appeals and Current Status

Pietz appealed to the Washington Court of Appeals, Division I, arguing that the trial court had improperly admitted evidence of his affairs and sexual behavior, that the reasonable doubt instruction was defective, and that his right to a public trial was violated when a juror was excused outside open court. On October 12, 2015, the Court of Appeals affirmed on all grounds, finding the jury instruction was not a “model of clarity” but that any error was harmless, and concluding the record showed the juror was in fact excused in open court.¹⁴ Pietz then petitioned the Washington Supreme Court for review, adding a cumulative error claim.¹⁵

He also filed a personal restraint petition challenging the seizure of a white gold tennis bracelet as the fruit of an unlawful search, and arguing his appellate lawyer was ineffective for not raising the issue on direct appeal. After a 2021 reference hearing, the Court of Appeals denied the petition on May 2, 2022, holding the evidence admissible under the independent source doctrine because Detective Mellis had sufficient independent motivation to seek the search warrant.¹⁶

As of available records, Pietz is incarcerated at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen, Washington, under Department of Corrections number 370510.¹⁷

1
MyNorthwest. Convicted Wife Murderer Pietz Gets Over 18 Years in Prison
2
Washington State Courts. State v. Pietz, Respondent’s Brief
3
Washington State Courts. State v. Pietz, Court of Appeals Opinion
4
CBS News. Nicole Pietz Murder: A Mother’s Relentless Search for Justice
5
ABC News. David Pietz Murder Trial: Women Testify About Intimacy With Accused
6
ABC News. Washington Man Charged in Wife’s Disappearance, Murder
7
MyNorthwest. King County Cold Case Unit Closes
8
CBS News. 48 Hours: A Mother Finds Justice for Her Murdered Daughter
9
Seattle Times. David Pietz Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison for Wife’s Murder
10
Seattle Times. Prosecutor: Husband of Slain Lynnwood Woman Cold and Callous
11
ABC News. David Pietz Murder Trial: Surveillance Footage and Cellphone Records
12
ABC News. Nicole Pietz Murder Trial: Mother Confronts Alleged Killer
13
ABC News. David Pietz Murder Trial: Prosecutors Point to Failed Lie Detector Test
14
Justia. State v. Pietz, No. 71162-8
15
Washington State Courts. Pietz, Petition for Review
16
Washington State Courts. Personal Restraint Petition of Martin David Pietz Jr.
17
Washington State Courts. Pietz, Statement of Additional Grounds