Man admits to killing his wife and says he doesn't know why

It took all of seven words for Matthew Gretz to seal his own fate. "I stabbed and intentionally killed my wife," Gretz, the husband of Minneapolis art student Kira Simonian, told Hennepin County District Judge Robert Blaeser on Monday.

The 33-year-old Minneapolis man originally had cast himself as the grieving husband who was as much a victim, a role he played to the hilt during a candlelight vigil after his wife's death. Then, the evidence mounted. Two months later, he was charged with murder.

Gretz, 33, pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder for stabbing Simonson about 15 times in the chest and neck and smashing her head with a hammer last June 28. According to the charges, Gretz chased Simonian around their south Minneapolis apartment during the bizarre and bloody attack, screaming, "Do you love me?"