'Milkshake' killer appeals

2005-09-29 17:06

Hong Kong - An American woman has appealed a High Court decision that she murdered her banker husband by lacing his milkshake with sedatives before bashing his head with a metal ornament at the couple's Hong Kong luxury apartment, an attorney said on Thursday.

Nancy Kissel, 41, was sentenced to life in prison on September 1 at the end of a three-month jury trial involving sensational testimony about alleged sexual abuse, cocaine use and adultery.

Kissel's attorney, Simon Clarke, said "an appeal was filed by Nancy Kissel yesterday (on Wednesday)." He declined to discuss on the record the grounds for the appeal.

"She is likely to have a hearing date probably in the middle of next year," Clarke said.

Husband discovered her affair

The prosecution said Kissel had an affair with a repairman who worked on the couple's vacation home in the northeastern US state of Vermont. Her husband, Robert, discovered the affair and had planned to seek a divorce just before she killed him in November 2003, the prosecution said.

She subdued her husband - a wealthy investment banker at Merrill Lynch - with a milkshake laced with the date-rape drug Rohypnol before beating him over the head with a metal ornament, the prosecution said. She rolled the body up in a rug and placed it in a storage locker the couple rented at their luxury apartment complex, the prosecution said.

Nancy Kissel said she killed her husband in self-defence as she tried to fend off the baseball bat-wielding man during an argument. She said her husband was a cocaine-snorting, violent, short-tempered workaholic who frequently forced her to have painful anal sex.

- AP