Donna Kristofak Feared for Her Life

Donna Kristofak's worst fears were realized in a Cobb County courtroom in October as a judge was deciding whether to release her ex-husband from jail for stalking her.

They were the fears that John Kristofak would kill her.

According to a report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the East Cobb woman begged Cobb Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs not to free him for time served as part of a five-year sentence, with the remainder to be served on probation.

John Kristofak had been jailed since March for aggravated stalking. Several days prior to his arrest, he allegedly sent Donna Kristofak several threatening e-mails, including chilling promises that he would kill her.

During an Oct. 12 plea hearing, Grubbs made a temporary restraining order a permanent one, telling Donna Kristofak that if John Kristofak violated its terms he would be jailed immediately.

According to the AJC report, Donna Kristofak responded, “Yes, your honor, I respect that and thank you for that. My fear is that I may not survive that . . I fear for my life."

John Kristofak was arrested Thursday for the murder of Donna Kristofak, 48, who was found unresponsive in her home on Tall Pine Drive Saturday morning. She later died at WellStar Kenestone Hospital, and the warrant issued for his arrest indicated she was stabbed once in the upper torso.

After being on the run for five days, John Kristofak is being held without bond at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center. There was a brief struggle with law enforcement as he was apprehended at a Motel 6 in Union City before dawn Thursday.

John Kristofak, 58, listed in arrest reports as having an Acworth address, was released Oct. 29 after nearly seven months in jail. He was arrested for aggravated stalking on March 29 in an East Cobb Wal-Mart parking lot, where he was pursuing her.

The AJC report said police found a butcher's knife and a reported suicide note in John Kristofak's car.

Less than two months after his release, John Kristofak allegedly went to his ex-wife's home, attacked her in the garage, and fled in a brown Chevrolet Equinox that authorities said was located outside his motel room when he was arrested Thursday.

Grubbs told the AJC she could not discuss the case.

While he was at-large, John Kristofak sent e-mails to The Marietta Daily Journal, threatening to take his own life, and posted pseudonymously on East Cobb Patch, referring to himself in the third person in benign, almost sympathetic terms.

John and Donna Kristofak, who divorced in 2011, had two sons together, both in high school. Harrison, a senior at Dominion Christian School in Marietta, tweeted Thursday for the first time since his mother's death:

"Me and my brother are in good hands.. God will be with us."

Zac, a freshman at Walton High School, tweeted Wednesday that he and his brother "are so thankful for the support of East Cobb. Merry Christmas everyone."

On Thursday, he tweeted: "I can finally rest peacefully."

On his Twitter profile page he states only: "R.I.P. Mom"