Hubby killed in 'self defence'

2005-08-30 14:38

Hong Kong - American housewife Nancy Kissel, 41, sobbed quietly on Tuesday as her lawyer wrapped up his closing argument in her Hong Kong murder trial, saying the woman killed her husband in self defence and that investigators missed blood stains that showed there was a struggle.

The high-profile trial went to the jury, which must sift through nearly three months of testimony about drugs, violence and sex that gave the Hong Kong public a rare glimpse into the private life of a wealthy expatriate couple.

The prosecution argued that the wife was a cold-blooded killer who drugged her husband, Robert, 40, with a sedative-laced milkshake.

The prosecution said she smashed in his skull with five blows with a metal ornament in the bedroom of their luxury apartment in 2003.

Kind, loving, devoted mother

The prosecution said she wanted to run away with her lover - a repairman living in a United States trailer park - and was worried about losing custody of her three children in an imminent divorce.

But, attorney Alexander King noted on Tuesday that witnesses testified that the wife was a kind, loving and devoted mother.

King asked the jury: "Was she someone who was shown to be violent?"

King argued that the husband, a top investment banker at Merrill Lynch, was an abusive husband who used cocaine and frequently forcefully sodomised his wife.

Nancy Kissel cried quietly as King read out loud emails she wrote before the killing that described how unhappy her marriage was.

Hubby 'was unharmed'

During a break, she begun sobbing loudly, and her mother and attorney tried to calm her down by rubbing her back and talking to her in a soothing voice.

The defence had said that the husband was threatening his wife with a baseball bat on the night of the killing, but the prosecution had argued that the husband was unarmed.

King told the jury that the prosecution did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that a baseball bat wasn't used in the couple's violent argument.

King also said that investigators missed several large bloodstains in the bedroom that were evidence of a struggle.

He accused the investigators of being careless or ignoring evidence that undercut the prosecution's case.

Lover 'not a gold-digger'

King said: "This evidence is put before you as expert evidence, and the reality is that there is nothing expert about it at all."

The defence attorney also said that the wife's lover, Michael Del Priore, wasn't a gold-digger who hoped to profit off of the husband's life insurance payout.

The lawyer said Del Priore was a confidant who helped the woman endure a miserable marriage.

King said: "Michael Del Priore, far from being a villain, was a shoulder to cry on."

The victim was from New York. The husband lived in Michigan and Minnesota.

- AP