NZ graduate accused of wife's murder moved to jail

Blazej Kot is accused of killing Caroline Coffey a month after he married her. Photo / Supplied

The Auckland University graduate charged with cutting the throat of his new wife has been transferred from hospital to a Pennsylvania jail cell.

Police spokesman Richard Haas said Blazej Kot was well enough to be moved from hospital to a county jail and was likely to be visited by his parents who have arrived from New Zealand.

Kot, 24, and his wife, Caroline Coffey, originally from Ireland, were married last month in Costa Rica.

Ms Coffey, 28, a researcher at the ivy league Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, was found slain on a walking trail about 400 metres from the apartment she shared with Kot.

An autopsy showed she had bled to death from a massive laceration to the front of her throat on June 3.

Kot, studying for his doctorate at Cornell University, was arraigned in his hospital bed in Sayre, Pennsylvannia last Friday on charges of second-degree murder under allegations that he fatally lacerated his wife with a sharp-edged weapon near the trail.

Bradford County District Attorney Daniel Barrett said Kot was released from hospital on Monday into the care of the Bradford County Correctional Facility, the Ithaca Journal newspaper reported.

Kot now has the option to voluntarily return to Ithaca to face the charges, or undergo extradition to New York state.

Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson declined to comment about the status of any extradition proceedings her office may be handling.

The discovery of Coffey's bloodied body by a jogger and cyclist was made the morning after a fire at the couple's home, which appeared to have been deliberately set.

Kot was also involved in a 8km police pursuit from Taughannock State Park on Tuesday night. He was found in his car, clutching a knife, suffering a life-threatening, self-inflicted wound, and was airlifted to hospital, officials said.

Coffey's website said she was originally from Dublin, Ireland, but attended high school in the USA and received her PhD. in comparative bio-medical sciences from Cornell in 2007. She was working as a post-doctoral researcher in bio-medical engineering at the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Kot is studying information science.

Of Polish ancestry and born in Zaire, he has lived most of his life in Auckland.

He attended Macleans College and completed a Bachelor of Science Degree, majoring in computer science and physics at the University of Auckland.

- NZPA