Man Pleads Not Guilty in Slaying of Ex-Wife : Courts: D.A. plans first-degree murder case against physician charged with shooting Eileen Zelig in courthouse.
A Woodland Hills doctor, charged with shooting his ex-wife to death in a crowded hallway of the Downtown Civil Courthouse during a bitter divorce battle, pleaded not guilty Wednesday.
The physician, Harry Zelig, 48, remains in jail without bail, pending an Oct. 16 court date to schedule a preliminary hearing.
Zelig was arrested at the courthouse on Friday morning as he calmly stood at his ex-wife’s side as she lay bleeding on the floor from a single gunshot wound.
Eileen Zelig, 40, of Chatsworth, died several hours later in surgery. The couple’s youngest child, a 6-year-old girl, witnessed the shooting of her mother.
The shooting sparked an outcry over lax security in the Downtown courthouse, which has many entrances, few guards and no metal detectors.
Zelig allegedly shot his ex-wife with a .38-caliber pistol near an escalator they had both used to get to a courtroom, where the latest hearing was scheduled in their ongoing dispute over money, property and their three children.
The subject of the hearing was Eileen Zelig’s effort to seize the doctor’s car because he had repeatedly refused to pay court-ordered spousal and child support for the children, ages 6 to 12.
Friends said the couple’s children are being cared for by the dead woman’s parents.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven Slavitt said the killing fit the pattern of a battered-spouse slaying. “As the batterer feels he’s losing control, that’s when the woman is most vulnerable to violence,†he said, noting that she was in the process of attaching his car.
Slavitt said he hopes to secure a first-degree murder conviction against Zelig, carrying a maximum possible penalty of 35 years to life in prison, including a penalty for using a gun. “There is evidence we’re uncovering†to support a first-degree charge, Slavitt said. “He was cool like ice afterward.â€
In a letter contained in the couple’s divorce records, Harry Zelig vowed: “I will not pay you spousal support, ever. You have gotten the last penny of mine that you will ever see. . . . I have no problem with going to jail or dropping out of sight and letting you chase me around the planet.â€
That vow followed a two-year “The War of the Rosesâ€-type divorce, bitter even by the jaded standards of the downtown family law courts.
Although court records showed that Eileen Zelig repeatedly expressed fear of her estranged husband, saying she had installed floodlights and bought a dog to protect her, some people who know Harry Zelig said there was another side to the story.
They expressed surprise at his alleged actions.
“I never believed he would ever cause any physical harm to Eileen Zelig,†the physician’s former divorce attorney, Iris Joan Finsilver, said.
Arrangements for a memorial service for Eileen Zelig are incomplete.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
