'Springer' guest guilty of murder

SARASOTA, FLORIDA - A man was convicted of killing his ex-wife hours after they and another woman were featured on a ``Jerry Springer Show&#39;&#39; episode about love triangles. <br> <br> Ralf Panitz, 42, was found guilty of second-degree murder Tuesday night in the slaying of Nancy Campbell-Panitz, 52. Jurors, who deliberated for 18 hours over two days, also convicted him of violating a domestic violence order. <br> <br> Panitz could face up to life in prison when he is sentenced in May. <br> <br> Campbell-Panitz was beaten and choked on July 24, 2000, shortly after the airing of an episode of the Springer show featuring her being confronted by her ex-husband and his current wife, Eleanor. The show had been taped in May. <br> <br> Prosecutors said they believe the killing was touched off by Panitz&#39;s anger at being barred by a judge from living in his ex-wife&#39;s house. The couple had been divorced since 1999 but continued living together off and on, even after Panitz secretly married Eleanor in March 2000. <br> <br> Prosecutors won the convictions after a 10-day trial in which defense attorney Geoffrey Fieger, whose previous clients include Dr. Jack Kevorkian, presented a series of high-profile criminologists who testified there hadn&#39;t been a murder at all. <br> <br> Fieger argued that Campbell-Panitz died from a heart attack suffered during a fight with someone, but not his client. <br> <br> Fieger blasted jurors following the verdict, saying they ``made up evidence&#39;&#39; because none existed linking Panitz to the death. <br> <br> Prosecutors, though, said 18 bloody footprints matched a shoe Panitz owned and his DNA was found under his ex-wife&#39;s fingernails. Detectives said Campbell-Panitz&#39;s face was so badly beaten she was unidentifiable to a deputy who had seen her earlier the same day. <br> <br> Assistant Sarasota County State Attorney Charlie Roberts said he was satisfied with the second-degree murder charge. At one point, prosecutors had charged Panitz with that crime, but upgraded it under a Florida law which makes a killing accompanied by another felony first-degree murder. <br> <br> ``I always felt the facts were the fact and you can&#39;t change the facts and you can&#39;t change common sense,&#39;&#39; Roberts said. <br> <br> Eleanor Panitz said the verdict would be appealed. <br> <br> ``I will never give up trying to see my husband is a free man because in my heart I do not believe he did this,&#39;&#39; she said. <br> <br> The slaying capped a dysfunctional drama in which the German house painter bounced between his ex-wife and wife, often moving in with one the same day he dumped another. <br> <br> The trio spent months filing a flurry of domestic violence allegations against each other and appeared on the Springer show episode titled ``Secret Mistresses Confronted,&#39;&#39; where the audience jeered as Campbell-Panitz was ridiculed as being ``fat&#39;&#39; and ``old.&#39;&#39;