Hihnala murder trial begins Tuesday

By ART BUKOWSKI
abukowski@record-eagle.com

September 06, 2008 12:00 am

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TRAVERSE CITY -- Vicki Hihnala's son died during an argument with his wife last year, and Hihnala isn't quite sure what to expect from her daughter-in-law's murder trial.

Authorities believe Michelle Hihnala stabbed Alan Hihnala with a kitchen knife, but Michelle Hihnala told police he ran into the knife as she held it out to defend herself from his drunken assaults.

Vicki Hihnala believes she may never know what really happened, and she doesn't know if the impending trial will provide a definite answer. The most important thing to her, she said, is to sense that her son is at peace.

"I'd like to feel that he's at rest, whatever would make that happen," she said. "But I don't know what that is."

Michelle Hihnala's trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday in front of 13th Circuit Court Judge Thomas G. Power in Grand Traverse County. She's charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter.

Police responded to the couple's East Bay Township home on July 8, 2007, and found Alan Hihnala, 27, on the floor with a large wound in his chest. Michelle Hihnala, 28, was charged in February, about seven months after the alleged crime.

The defense plans to have a blood spatter expert testify in an effort to back up Michelle Hihnala's story, among other witnesses.

"We're very confident the evidence will overwhelmingly show that ... there wasn't any criminal activity on her part," defense attorney Clarence Gomery said. "We're confident in our defense, in our evidence, and we strongly believe that the proofs will vindicate her of any wrongdoing. In fact, it will probably provide evidence of her being a victim."

Michelle Hihnala is under stress but doing well, Gomery said.

"This has been traumatic for her; the waiting is traumatic," Gomery said. "I think she relives it every day, but she is coping with it and anticipating moving on with her life."

For Vicki Hihnala, the pain hasn't subsided.

"(I feel) like my son just died all over again," she said.

The Hihnalas were high school sweethearts who graduated together from Forest Area High School in Fife Lake in 1998. They married in June 2000 and purchased their East Bay Township home in October of that year.

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