Possible squatters occupy home of Berkeley professor killed in Greece

About a year after a UC Berkeley business professor was shot and killed in Greece over a yearslong custody dispute, possible squatters have allegedly been living in his Berkeley home for months, the family’s attorney said. 

Przemyslaw (Przemek) Jeziorski, who was 43 years old, was shot multiple times by a masked shooter on July 4, 2025, in a suburb of Athens, SFGATE previously reported, leaving his home abandoned. 

The shooting was allegedly a plot to kill Jeziorski that involved five people, including his ex-wife, Konstantina Nadia Michelidaki, whom Jeziorski’s family previously called the one who “masterminded” the “horrific cold-blooded murder.” The ex-wife’s boyfriend at the time confessed to being the shooter just days after it happened. All five were arrested, but on June 4 of this year, Michelidaki was found dead in her prison cell after an apparent death by suicide, according to a news release from Erin Stratte, the lawyer representing Jeziorski’s family.

Michelidaki and Jeziorski had “multiple properties” together, Stratte told SFGATE, including the home at 1998 Marin Ave. in Berkeley that has allegedly been occupied by squatters for at least six months. The couple previously used the home, which they purchased in 2014, as an Airbnb, according to Stratte’s statement. Stratte said her firm believes that the two people first gained access to Jeziorski’s house on Dec. 4, 2025, by “reporting their own burglary” to the Berkeley Police Department.

Officers arrived on the scene at approximately 2:24 a.m. that day for a reported burglary, in which four masked suspects allegedly kicked in the front door of the house, Byron White, a spokesperson for the BPD, told SFGATE. The suspects ran away just before BPD arrived, and officers weren’t able to stop the suspects’ vehicle after trying to pull them over, White said. Later that morning, a woman, who is allegedly one of the squatters, arrived at the home and told police she was renting a room from the landlord, White said. 

In a statement from the woman filed with the Superior Court of Alameda County, she said she was out of town and that, when she came home on Dec. 4, police notified her about the burglary call earlier that day. She allegedly tried to call the “landlord.”

“At that point I realized that the number I had for her wasn’t going through. It would just make a beeping noise and then hung up,” the woman wrote in her statement. “I didn’t think anything of it because when I met her and we did walk through she told me how she travels a lot and always isn’t in bay area.” 

The woman said she moved into the home on Oct. 1 after a tour in August with someone who she believed was the homeowner. The woman said she allegedly paid $30,000 up-front for a one-year lease along with a $500 deposit.

The family first discovered the possible squatters in the beginning of January when someone went to inspect the house and found “evidence that people had been there,” Stratte told SFGATE. She said that’s when the family notified the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and started the legal process to remove them. 

White confirmed that an “individual representing the homeowners” contacted the BPD on Jan. 29 about possible squatters. Officers found a man and woman at the home who said they were renting the house, according to White. The woman was the same person who spoke with the BPD on Dec. 4, he said. 

Investigators were “unable to substantiate either party’s claims regarding lawful possession of the property,” White said, and deemed it a “civil matter that must be resolved through the civil court process.” The woman, however, was arrested by another law enforcement agency for an unrelated, outstanding warrant.

Stratte said that during several inspections in late 2025, the home was empty. According to the news release, Stratte said Jeziorski’s brother, Lukasz Jeziorski, inspected the house in September 2025, while another person inspected it around the week of Thanksgiving, with the house being unoccupied in both cases. She said it was a “clear impossibility” that a lease could’ve been signed because the ex-wife was in prison and did not have access to computers or English-speaking agents. 

Eviction notices were filed against the woman and another person living at the home on April 21, court documents show. Stratte said a “loophole in California law” has made it difficult to remove them.

Neighbors have also allegedly reported that the people in the home are selling items from inside and that they damaged a “historic 100-year-old wall adjacent to the property,” Stratte’s statement read. 

“These squatters are taking advantage of orphan children that have a right to this property, and a system protecting their crimes,” Stratte wrote. “… The city and police have also failed to act or hold squatters accountable.” 

Lukasz told KNTV-TV that he is raising his brother’s 11-year-old twins and paying the mortgage on the home. 

“If you ask me what I think about them, I feel, like, nothing good,” he told the news outlet regarding the possible squatters. “… I feel that they are very bad people.”