Stabbing victim feared estranged husband would kill her, attorney says

A Chester County mother's worst fear - that her estranged husband would kill her or one of her four children - was first articulated last summer, months before she was fatally stabbed Sunday night, her attorney said.

Francis C. Miller said his client, Kimberly Hvizda, believed that James J. Hvizda, a former baseball star, was capable of murder, and she secured a restraining order against him in November, more than six months after she had filed for divorce.

Kimberly Hvizda, 37, of Chester Springs, was starting her shift at the Wawa convenience store in Upper Uwchlan Township at 11 p.m. Sunday when James Hvizda arrived for a prearranged exchange of letters, the criminal complaint said.

James Hvizda, 45, told police that he had purchased a knife from Dick's Sporting Goods in Langhorne the day before. He said when his wife reached into her van to grab the letters, he drew the knife and stabbed her multiple times, leaving the weapon protruding from her stomach, the complaint said.

Police were notified about the fatal stabbing twice, the complaint said. A coworker at the Wawa off Route 100 at 1800 Ticonderoga Blvd. called 911 after checking on Kimberly Hvizda's whereabouts and finding her body in the parking lot. In the meantime, James Hvizda walked into the nearby Upper Uwchlan Police Department about 11:10 p.m. When an officer asked "How can I help you?", he responded: "I just killed my wife," the complaint said.

In a subsequent taped interview with police, James Hvizda said that he had used the letters as a ruse to set up the fatal rendezvous and that "it was his intention to kill her during that Sunday meeting," the complaint said. He told police he had been contemplating his wife's death since around St. Patrick's Day; he even kept a journal that chronicled his intentions, the criminal complaint said.

"This was a cold-blooded, preplanned killing. The defendant executed his wife, the mother of his four children, with casual efficiency," Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said. "Those four children are now left without a mother and with a father charged with murder."

Miller, the attorney, said he was "devastated" by the news, describing Kimberly Hvizda as a kind, loving person. "She was a hardworking mother who would do anything to protect her kids," Miller said. "She worked the midnight shift so she could spend more time with them."

Besides the three children ages 1 to 6 that she had with her husband, Kimberly Hvizda also had a 15-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Miller said.

According to court records, the couple married in St. Thomas in September 2004. A year later, their first son was born, and in January 2007, they bought a $450,000 home in the Pickering Spring Farm subdivision in Chester Springs.

In March 2010, both the marriage and the couple's finances appeared to be on the rocks. Kimberly Hvizda moved out, and James Hvizda had already stopped paying the mortgage, according to foreclosure records. Custody records suggest alcohol was a problem for James Hvizda, a former baseball standout who was drafted by the Texas Rangers in 1988.

A 1984 graduate of Bishop Egan High School in Fairless Hills and Old Dominion University, James Hvizda won the minor-league Rolaids Relief Man Award in 1989 for the Texas Rangers' single-A farm club in Gastonia, N.C. But he never rose above the Class A level in the Rangers' organization.

Miller said Hvizda had been working at a Swann's Pantry grocery store in Quakertown. A manager there said only the owner could speak with the media about an employee, and he was not available.

According to court records, James Hvizda, who has a long history of motor-vehicle violations, pleaded guilty to public drunkenness in Bucks County in 2003. He was jailed for a day in October in Chester County on charges that he stalked his wife; he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.