Apartment manager found guilty of murder

SPOKANE - A former apartment-building manager who admitted dismembering a woman's body but denied killing her was convicted of first-degree murder yesterday.

Spokane County Superior Court jurors deliberated more than four hours before convicting Stanley Pietrzak after more than a week of testimony. Pietrzak faces a standard-range sentence of 20 to 26 years in prison, but he could receive a longer term because of prior convictions.

The 46-year-old man was charged in the slaying of Kelly Conway, 23, who was last seen alive in November 1998 in Pietrzak's apartment with Pietrzak and some friends. Pietrzak managed the downtown apartment building where Conway had lived.

Pietrzak told jurors Conway died of a drug overdose. He said he hid the body before dismembering her a week later.