Man Pleads Not Guilty in Courthouse Slaying of Ex-Wife

A Woodland Hills physician accused of shooting his former wife to death in a crowded hallway of the Downtown Civil Courthouse during a bitter divorce battle pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a charge of murder.

Dr. Harry Zelig, 48, remains in jail without bail pending an Oct. 16 court date to schedule a preliminary hearing.

Zelig was arrested at the courthouse Friday morning as he stood calmly beside his ex-wife while she lay bleeding on the floor from a single gunshot wound.

Eileen Zelig, 40, of Chatsworth died several hours later in surgery. The couple’s youngest child, a 6-year-old girl, witnessed the shooting.

The shooting sparked an outcry over lax security in the Downtown courthouse.

Police say Zelig shot his ex-wife with a .38-caliber pistol near an escalator that they had both used on their way to a courtroom where the latest hearing was scheduled in their ongoing dispute over money, property and their three children.

In a letter contained in the couple’s divorce records, Harry Zelig vowed: “I will not pay you spousal support, ever. You have gotten the last penny of mine that you will ever see. . . . I have no problem with going to jail or dropping out of sight and letting you chase me around the planet.”