Kristofak Pleads Guilty to Murder

Just days before his son's high school graduation, an Acworth man accused of killing his wife at her East Cobb home pleaded guilty to the crime.

John Steven Kristofak, 58, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for the December 2012 murder of Donna Kristofak, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.

It was the couple's youngest son who heard his mother's scream, ran outside and saw his father drive away from the scene on Tall Pine Drive, according to the MDJ.

Harrison Kristofak, now 18, was also the person who called 911.

When police arrived at the home around noon Dec. 22, 48-year-old Donna Kristofak was unresponsive. She later died at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital.

Though a murder warrant at the time indicated that Donna Kristofak was stabbed once in the upper torso during a confrontation in the garage, Chief Assistant District Attorney Don Geary said during a review of the case that John Kristofak fired two shots at his ex-wife. One hit her in the heart. The other missed and struck the car seat, according to the MDJ.

A few days later, Kristofak . A Cobb County Grand Jury on Feb. 28 indicted him on charges that included malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, aggravated stalking and two firearms-possession charges.

As part of Tuesday's deal, John Kristofak pleaded guilty to malice murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. In addition to life in prison, he agreed to serve five years on the firearms possession charge.

That is on top of the decade-long prison sentence that Cobb Superior Court Chief Judge Adele Grubbs handed down in March.

Grubbs, who sentenced John Kristofak to probation in October after he pleaded guilty in an earlier aggravated stalking and family violence simple battery case involving his ex-wife, revoked that probation after John Kristofak was indicted.

She sentenced him in March to 10 years in prison for violating the terms of his probation in the prior aggravated stalking case.

Donna Kristofak's family agreed to the plea deal to put the case behind them, according to the MDJ. Harrison Kristofak graduates Saturday.

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