VENTURA : Kolodziej’s Ex-Girlfriend Testifies

Before mental illness caused him to have delusions, Kevin J. Kolodziej was “clever, dynamic and charming,” his former girlfriend testified Wednesday as Kolodziej’s trial continued in Ventura County Superior Court.

Kolodziej, 25, is charged with burglary and first-degree murder in the Jan. 17 slaying of Velasta Johnson in her Ventura home. His two public defenders are trying to prove that Kolodziej is mentally ill and not guilty by reason of insanity.

Loretta Hart testified that she met Kolodziej in Utah in 1987 and fell in love with him. About a year later, they had a son. They moved back and forth between Utah and Los Angeles, she said, because Kolodziej was interested in an acting career.

Not long after the baby was born, however, Kolodziej began acting strangely, Hart said.

He once told her that she was a reincarnated witch who was going to unite with Adolf Hitler’s reincarnated soul to destroy the world, she testified. Kolodziej also was obsessed with the idea that people were trying to control him, she said.

“He had never been like that before,” she testified.

The couple split up two years after they met, Hart said. She kept the child, married another man and rarely heard from Kolodziej until his arrest.

In his cross-examination, Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris suggested that Kolodziej’s problem was drug addiction, not mental illness.

Hart acknowledged that she had seen Kolodziej use cocaine, marijuana and the hallucinogenic drug Ecstasy on occasion but said drugs did not cause problems in the relationship.

Earlier Wednesday, Peter Zahm of Ventura testified that he saw Kolodziej wandering on Agnus Drive, the street where the victim lived, a few minutes before the slaying.

Kolodziej, who had just left nearby Ventura County Medical Center and was still wearing a hospital gown, approached Zahm’s van and asked where he could take a shower, the witness said. Zahm suggested that Kolodziej return to the hospital.

“He indicated that wasn’t an option,” Zahm said. “He said something like ‘They can’t help me’ or ‘I can’t do that.’ ”

Deputy Public Defenders Steve P. Lipson and Neil B. Quinn planned to rest their case today.

Then the prosecution is expected to have its own psychiatrist to rebut the testimony of the psychiatrists and psychologists who testified for the defense.

Judge James M. McNally is hearing the case without a jury.