Wife admits: Yes, I killed him

2005-08-04 11:00

Hong Kong - An American housewife who has pleaded innocent to murdering her husband in Hong Kong testified on Thursday that she beat to death the wealthy investment banker with a household ornament.

Nancy Kissel, 41, is accused of giving her husband a milkshake spiked with drugs, bludgeoning him to death during a quarrel, wrapping his body in a rug and placing it in a storage locker at the couple's luxury apartment complex in 2003.

Kissel has testified in High Court that she fought with her husband, Robert, the day he died. She said he hit her with a baseball bat and that she struck him with the ornament.

But Kissel said she couldn't clearly recall what happened in the struggle, although she said she did hit something and her husband's head was bloody.

On Thursday, prosecutor Peter Chapman began questioning Kissel in the packed courtroom for the first time since the two-month trial began, and his opening question was: "Do you accept that you killed Robert Kissel?"

Kissel replied in a firm voice, "Yes."

When the prosecutor asked her if she beat her husband to death with an ornament, she said, "Yes."

Kissel testified that the last thing she remembered thinking during the struggle was: "I just wanted him to stop ... swinging the bat at me. I was afraid of him (because) he said he's going to kill me."

She has said that she had a vague recollection of the following two months when prosecutors said she tried to cover up the killing.

But she testified on Thursday that she had no memory loss problems before her husband's death.

When her lawyer was questioning her earlier on Thursday, Kissel did not specifically deny spiking her husband's milkshake. She said, "It was a milkshake that I made for my children and someone else's child. I wouldn't harm my own children. I wouldn't harm someone else's child."

A high amount of sedatives was found in Robert Kissel's body.

Kissel has said that she put sedatives in her husband's whiskey once during a vacation in the northeast United States state of Vermont. She said she did it to calm him down and prevent him from being too aggressive with their children.

The trial which began two months ago has riveted the city and produced a slew of sensational details about the wealthy expat couple's life. The woman's 40-year-old husband was a high-powered investment banker for Merrill Lynch and they were considered a model couple.

But the woman has admitted to having an affair with an electrician in Vermont. She has also described her husband as an abusive workaholic who indulged in alcohol, cocaine and forceful sex.

Her lawyer on Thursday asked her to comment on evidence found in her apartment: a plastic bag of bloody items along with bloodied packing boxes and tape with her fingerprints.

Speaking in a low, monotone voice, she repeatedly responded, "I don't know" or "I have no recollection."

If convicted, Kissel faces up to life in prison.

- AP