Aug 29, 2005 9:31 am US/Central
'Milkshake Murder' Defense Makes Closing Argument
Hong Kong (AP) ―
A lawyer defending an American housewife accused of murdering her wealthy husband in Hong Kong said in a closing argument Monday that the woman was defending herself against a paranoid man threatening her with a baseball bat.
Nancy Kissel, 41, has admitted during the nearly three-month-long jury trial that she beat to death her husband, Robert, with a metal ornament in self defense during a bedroom quarrel in the couple's luxury flat in Nov. 2003.
But the woman has denied planning the killing by searching the Internet for tips about how to drug people. She is described by the prosecution as a cold-blooded killer who served her husband a milkshake laced with sedatives before bludgeoning him to death and hiding his body in a rolled-up carpet.
During his closing argument Monday, defense attorney Alexander King repeatedly referred to Robert Kissel, a top investment banker at Merrill Lynch, as "this paranoid, suspicious, manipulative man."
Dressed in black, Nancy Kissel listened closely in the packed courtroom, occasionally wiping her eyes with a tissue.
The defense said Robert Kissel was a controlling husband who installed spyware on his wife's computer. King also alleged the husband was violent, sexually abusive and obsessed with anal sex. The defense said he attacked his wife with a baseball bat the night of the killing.
The attorney said when Nancy Kissel was away, her husband used the Internet to research gay sex services in Taiwan before a business trip to the island.
"What kind of husband, when his wife is away, starts searching out for male prostitutes?" King said.
The attorney also argued the prosecution never proved beyond reasonable doubt that the wife planned the murder. King said the prosecutor's accusation that Nancy Kissel wanted to get rid of her husband so that she could pocket the life insurance and be with her lover was "pure speculation."
Nancy had admitted to having the affair with Michael Del Priore, a repairman who lived in a trailer park near the couple's vacation home in the northeastern U.S. state of Vermont.
As for the drugged milkshake, King said no clear evidence proves the allegation. He added that Robert was alert enough to delete an e-mail hours after he drank the beverage.
King also said the prosecution never showed any evidence that Nancy Kissel planned how she was going to dispose of the body, found wrapped in a carpet in storage space rented by the couple. Witnesses testified that the wife asked maintenance men to haul away the body.
Nancy Kissel testified that she couldn't clearly remember what happened after the killing, and her lawyer said that she "melted down" because of the trauma.
One of the defendant's friends testified that Nancy asked her, "How's Rob?" days after the incident, King said.
The victim was from New York. Nancy Kissel was born in Adrian, Michigan, but her family had also lived in Minneapolis.
The defense was to continue giving its closing argument on Tuesday.
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