Kiwi student found guilty of US murder

A former Auckland student turned Ivy League scholar convicted of murdering his new bride and burning their house down will serve his full prison sentence in the United States.

Blazej Jakub Kot, 25, was yesterday found guilty of murdering Caroline Coffey and additional charges of arson and tampering with evidence.

His lawyer Joe Joch, speaking to the Herald from his home in New York state, said Kot would be deported after the minimum sentence was served.

The former Macleans College and Auckland University science student faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of between 15 and 25 years.

After an 8km pursuit on June 2 last year, police found Kot in his car clutching a knife and with a life-threatening wound, in the Taghannock Falls State Park.

They then found the couple's home ablaze and Ms Coffey missing.

Her body was found by a jogger and cyclist, about 400m from the apartment, and an autopsy found the 28-year-old bled to death from a cut to the throat.

Less than two hours before Ms Coffey's death the couple - both studying at Cornell University in New York - were uploading photos on to Facebook from their wedding in Costa Rica two and a half weeks earlier.

Kot's parents, Barbara and Leszek Kot, travelled from their East Auckland home to testify in the trial.

A neighbour said the couple didn't speak about the killing before they left and friends didn't push the subject.

Last night Mr Joch said the Kots had been "very supportive" of their son and had spoken to Ms Coffey's family throughout the trial.

"They were very stoic," he said.

In Kot's defence case, he argued that his client had a rare personality disorder that made him paranoid he was being watched and that his Irish-born wife had been secretly replaced by an identical imposter.

Kot is to be sentenced on May 25.