Frail and stooped, murder suspect, 72, appears in

By MARK KIESLING | Friday, February 13, 1998

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Section: aW PAGE: 01

Date: 02/13/98

Head: Frail and stooped, murder suspect, 72, appears in court.

By: MARK KIESLING

CROWN POINT - Nikola Stojkovic slumped in a chair Thursday in front of Lake

Criminal Court Magistrate Kathleen Sullivan, watching the proceedings with dull

eyes rimmed by thin gold-framed glasses.

His attorney and family friend, Peter Katic, translated into his native

Serbian and assured Sullivan that Stojkovic, 72, understood well the nature of

the charge: that he murdered Ljubica Stojkovic, his wife of more than 40 years

and mother of their four children.

An automatic not guilty plea was entered for him; he was told of his pending

court dates.

Saturday, the family of Ljubica "Violet" Stojkovic, 62, will bury her. She

did not die, as her family had expected, of the stroke that put her in a

wheelchair two years ago, but from two gunshots to the head.

Police said Nikola turned violent after his wife told him he had caused her

problems and that she was going to cause him problems. He went to the garage of

their home at 1419 Fran-Lin Parkway in Munster, got a gun, returned to her

bedroom and shot Ljubica twice in the head, police said.

"I've known the family practically all my life, and it was just as much a

shock to me as it was to anyone else," Katic said of the news that Ljubica was

found shot to death Tuesday morning in her home and that her husband had

allegedly confessed to the murder.

The chrome handcuffs looked huge on Stojkovic's thin wrists when he was led

into the windowless courtroom with half a dozen other men accused of felonies.

In deference to his medical condition - he had heart bypass surgery in

spring 1997 - he was allowed to sit throughout the proceedings.

His sparse gray hair stood wildly on his head, sticking out in all

directions. He looked at the judge and spoke in rapid-fire Serbian.

Sullivan looked inquiringly at Katic, who said, "Basically, he is venting

his frustration at being unable to bathe or shave or take care of his normal

hygiene requirements."

Sullivan said that because of Stojkovic's condition, she would consider

sending him to the Indiana Department of Correction pending trial for better

medical attention.

"We may need to explore that possibility," Katic said.

Katic said he and co-counsel Herbert Shaps would also confer before the

weekend about filing a motion for bond. Murder in Indiana is not bondable

unless a defendant puts on a sort of mini-trial to show the state's evidence to

be weak.

Katic said Nikola Stojkovic had emigrated to America shortly after the end

of World War II, and worked at Youngstown Sheet and Tube (now LTV Steel) before

retiring.

Although Stojkovic made a statement to Munster police about the shooting,

Katic said his client's knowledge of English is fairly limited.

"Like many of the post-World War II immigrants, he learned much of his

English from work and family. He does not read or write it that well, I'd

suspect," he said.

Stojkovic, stooped and limping, was led from the courtroom, his hands cuffed

and a thick chain hanging from wrist to wrist, flanked by husky young men in

jail correctional uniforms.

Contacted by the family shortly after the shooting, Katic said he wanted to

be present at Thursday's hearing "because of his physical frailty and because

of the language problems. I just didn't want him to be alone."

Suzanne Stojkovic, one of the couple's two daughters, found her mother shot

about 8:18 a.m. after she heard two loud bangs while in the shower. She had

taken a leave of absence from her job to care for her mother, Katic said, and

thought the noise was her father who had fallen down a flight of stairs two

days earlier.

She came out of the bathroom to find her father mumbling to himself, police

said, and saying he had shot her mother and that she should shoot him. She

called police, who took the .38-caliber pistol from Nikola without resistance.