The Nancy Kissel Case - Part 38
(Bloomberg) Kissel Tells H.K. Court She Accepts She Killed Banker Husband. By Le-Min Lee. August 4, 2005.
Nancy Kissel, on trial for the murder of her Merrill Lynch & Co. investment banker husband, today told Hong Kong's High Court that she accepted that she killed him.
Kissel, 41, who made the comments under cross-examination by prosecutor Peter Chapman, said Robert Kissel had threatened to kill her. She said she threw metal ornaments at her husband when he came at her, swinging a baseball bat and threatening to kill her. Kissel shook when police officers unwrapped a baseball bat and brass metal pieces to show the court as exhibits.
"I just wanted him to stop swinging the bat at me,'' she said, when asked by defense lawyer Alexander King what crossed her mind as threw the ornaments at her husband.
The prosecution has alleged Nancy Kissel drugged her millionaire husband on Nov. 2, 2003, by lacing his milkshake with sedatives and -- when he was under the influence of the drugs -- struck him with a heavy metal object. Kissel is pleading not guilty to one count of murder.
Robert Kissel, whose body was found wrapped in a carpet on Nov. 6, 2003, in a storeroom near the couple's Tai Tam apartment, died of head injuries, a police statement said at the time. At the hearing today, Nancy Kissel said she accepted that she inflicted the wounds on her husband's head. She said she didn't have a criminal record or a history of violence.
Today, Kissel said she had no memory of disposing of the body. When questioned by King, she said she couldn't explain why her fingerprints were found on the packing tapes of boxes containing bloodied items. She said she couldn't recall cleaning the master bedroom or calling the building management employees to arrange storage after the Nov. 2 fight.
The prosecutor asked Kissel whether she had memory problems, after she had repeatedly answered questions by saying she couldn't remember. Kissel said she is on anti-depressants.
When cross-examined by Chapman, Kissel said her husband's sexual demands on her changed after they came to Hong Kong in 1998, and that he forced her to have "oral and anal sex,'' sometimes under the influence of both cocaine and alcohol. "He used force because that's the way he chose to have that kind of sex,'' Kissel said. "He knew I didn't really like it. It's humiliating to talk about it.''
Kissel earlier told the court her husband had hit her when she was pregnant.
Chapman asked if she got tested for AIDS after they came to Hong Kong, given they began to practice anal sex then and he was using cocaine and traveling more often. Kissel said she didn't. Kissel said earlier that her bridesmaid Allie Gertz had died of AIDS after contracting the disease through sex.
Kissel faces a jury of five men and two women. Jane Clayton, Robert Kissel's sister and a witness at the trial, was in the back row of the public gallery and cried as Kissel gave her testimony. The trial is adjourned until 10 a.m. Hong Kong time on Aug. 8.
Merrill Lynch hired Kissel from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2000 to head its distressed assets business in Asia outside Japan. He was a vice president in Goldman's Asian special situations group, helping the firm become one of the biggest investors in bad debts in the region.
The case is HKSAR v. Nancy Ann Kissel, indictment no. HCCC113/2004 in the Court of First Instance of the High Court. The hearing, which is in its 47th day, continues on Aug. 8.
(AP via Boston Globe) American housewife admits killing husband. By Sylvia Hui. August 4, 2005.
An American housewife who pleaded innocent to murdering her husband in Hong Kong testified Thursday that she beat the wealthy investment banker to death 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 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. His opening question: "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."
When questioned by her lawyer 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 Vermont. She said she did it to calm him down and prevent him from being too aggressive with their children.
The trial has riveted Hong Kong 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.
If convicted, Kissel faces up to life in prison.
Alternate version at SCMP:
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 Ann Kissel’s admission came two months into the High Court trial that has made headlines in Hong Kong with a steady flow of sensational details about sex, adultery, drugs, money and domestic violence.
Kissel, 41, is accused of giving her husband, Robert, a milkshake spiked with sedatives then bludgeoning him to death during a quarrel in 2003. She allegedly wrapped the Merrill Lynch banker’s body in a rug and placed it in a storage locker at the couple’s luxury apartment complex.
Kissel has testified that the day her 40-year-old husband died, he told her he was divorcing her and keeping their three children. She said that during an argument, he hit her with a baseball bat and she struck him with the ornament.
On Thursday, prosecutor Peter Chapman began grilling Kissel in the packed courtroom for the first time since the 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 — dressed in black as she has throughout the trial — 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 only a vague recollection of the following two months when prosecutors said she tried to cover up the killing.
Earlier on Thursday, her lawyer 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.”
Kissel also did not specifically deny spiking her husband’s milkshake. “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,” she said. 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 holiday in the northeast US state of Vermont. She said she did it to calm him down and prevent him from being too aggressive with their children.
The woman told the prosecutor on Thursday that her husband was a workaholic who abused cocaine and sodomised her, sometimes causing bleeding and bruising her thighs and arms. She said he once broke her ribs during rough sex. Kissel said she never reported the abuse because it was humiliating.
Police said she was born in Minneapolis in the northern US state of Minnesota, and she testified on Thursday that she studied business at the University of Minnesota before moving to New York. Kissel said she worked three jobs while her husband, a New York native, attended New York University. She admitted to having an affair with an electrician in Vermont in 2003 when she and her children left Hong Kong during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
If convicted, Kissel faces up to life in prison.
(Reuters) Wife of murdered HK banker admits to killing him. August 4, 2005.
The wife of high-flying Hong Kong-based investment banker Robert Kissel admitted in court on Thursday that she killed her husband but she made no move to change her plea of not guilty to murder.
"Do you accept that you killed your husband?" prosecutor Peter Chapman asked Nancy Kissel at her trial in High Court.
"Yes," she said, in a clear, firm voice.
Nancy Kissel, 41, told the packed court on Wednesday that she had struck her husband with a metal statue after he raped her and began hitting her repeatedly, but she said she had no recollection of what happened afterwards.
"Do you accept that you used that ornament to inflict those five fatal wounds?" Chapman asked. "Yes," she answered.
Earlier this week, Nancy told the court that she had suffered years of physical and sexual abuse by her husband, who was expelled for drug-dealing when he was in high school.
After they moved to Hong Kong in 1998, Robert often flew into cocaine- and alcohol-fuelled rages because of all the "high-end stress" from his job at Merrill Lynch <MER.N>, she said.
However, she denied accusations from prosecutors that she had spiked a milkshake that she served Robert and a neighbour with antidepressants and hypnotic drugs just hours before she killed her husband on the night of Nov. 2, 2003.
"These were the milkshakes I made for my (three) children and someone else's (neighbour's) child. I wouldn't harm my own children and someone else's child," she told the court, referring to a batch of the beverage she had prepared for several people.
Police found her husband's body on Nov. 6, 2003, in a storeroom that the couple rented in the luxury residential estate where they lived with their three children.
Nancy Kissel is charged with murder and if found guilty of murder, she could face life in prison.
How Kissel's defence planned to proceed was not clear. But the defence might argue that she acted while temporarily insane, which would extend her some level of protection under "diminished responsibility," or that she acted in self-defence.
Although she admitted to beating her husband to death that night, she said she had no recollection of what happened immediately afterwards and over the next few days.
Asked how Robert's body came to be wrapped in a carpet and ended up in the storeroom, Nancy said she did not know. Police found evidence that she requested four workers at the estate to move the carpet into the storeroom.
Investigators also found blood-splattered clothes in their children's closet and that the master bedroom had been cleaned of bloodstains. But Nancy said she could remember nothing.
She told the court earlier she had become so depressed with her marriage that she attempted suicide and had an affair with a TV repairman during an extended stay in the United States with the children to escape Hong Kong's SARS epidemic in 2003.
The case has shocked and riveted Hong Kong's expatriate community and housewives have packed the gallery since the trial began in June. Wealthy, successful and popular, the Kissels were held in awe for years as having the best marriage in town.
The prosecution said earlier that Robert Kissel had decided to divorce his wife after discovering the affair and was going to tell her on the night that he was slain.
The trial is expected to last until late August.
(DPA via Khaleej Times) Millionaire US banker's wife admits killing husband in Hong Kong. August 4, 2005.
A millionaire US banker’s wife on Thursday admitted killing her husband by beating him to death with a metal statuette at a dramatic Hong Kong murder trial. Merrill Lynch executive Robert Kissel, 40, was allegedly drugged with a laced strawberry milkshake and then beaten to death by his wife Nancy in their luxury Hong Kong apartment in November 2003.
She then rolled his body up in a carpet and got workmen to unknowingly carry it to a locked store room in the apartment block, prosecutors allege. Mother-of-three Kissel, 41, had denied murder but on the fourth day of giving testimony at the month-long trial in Hong Kong’s High Court on Thursday admitted she had killed her husband.
Asked by prosecutor Peter Chapman if she accepted that she had killed her husband, Kissel replied “yes”. Asked if she used a metal ornament to inflict the fatal injuries, she replied “yes”.
Kissel earlier claimed she could not recall the details of what happened on the day her husband died, saying she blacked out after a fight which ended with him raping her in their bedroom. Portraying him as a violent cocaine addict who forced degrading sex abuse on her, Kissel said she came around to find his bloodied body slumped over her and had no memory of what happened next. However, she has denied serving up a laced strawberry milkshake to drug her husband before the killing.
Earlier in her testimony, Kissel admitted having an affair with a television repair man from the US while her husband stayed behind in Hong Kong during the 2003 SARS crisis. The banker - who earned millions a year in pay and bonuses - installed spyware on her laptop computer to prove the affair and on the day of his death told his wife he was divorcing her, the defendant testified. He also told her he was taking their children and that she was psychologically unfit to care for them, she told jurors. The murder trial is due to continue Friday.
(The Standard) Accused's revelations stun packed courtroom. By Albert Wong. August 5, 2005.
Nancy Kissel's testimony stunned the packed courtroom with a whole sequence of revelations Thursday. The High Court heard she had once put Stilnox, one of the sedatives found in the stomach of her dead husband, into his whisky bottle when they were in Vermont. She said her husband had just been aggressive with the couple's children and she wanted to calm him down, but it had not effect.
Back in Hong Kong, she tried the same tactic, but when she saw the sediment from the drug form at the bottom of the bottle she poured it all out in the sink, bought a new bottle and poured half the liquor into the old bottle. She "never thought about it again.''
Referring to the earlier testimony of her neighbor, Andrew Tanzer, that he became drowsy and then unconscious after he drank a milkshake that came from her kitchen, her counsel, Alexander King, SC, asked: "What can you tell us about that?'' Kissel replied: "It was a milkshake that I made for my children and for someone else's child. I wouldn't harm my own children. I wouldn't harm someone else's child. I made the milkshake for my children in the afternoon. That's all I remember,'' she said.
Kissel, 41, is accused of murdering her husband, American investment banker Robert Kissel, on November 2, 2003. She denies the charge. The prosecution alleges she conducted an attempted cover-up operation, telling her maids first that he was asleep, then that she was assaulted by her husband who was drunk and had taken cocaine.
Images from closed-circuit TV cameras around the Parkview residential complex and statements from prosecution witnesses have suggested that she went on two shopping sprees to replace blood-stained items. Witnesses have testified that they received phone calls from the accused, ordering cardboard boxes and a team of men to remove a large rug into storeroom 15112. Her husband's decomposing body was found wrapped up in a rug in the early hours of November 7, 2003 in the same storeroom. Her fingerprints were found on tape used to secure the rug and fasten the boxes containing blood-stained clothing and the ornament used to kill the former banker. In relation to all the events, between November 2 and 7, she offered similar replies: "I don't remember'' or "I have no recollection.''
Throughout her testimony, Kissel answered softly, often pausing before each sentence. When invited to approach the clerk's desk to identify a baseball bat, she held on to the witness box for support as she got out of her seat. She said it was the bat her husband was holding - one of her last memories of that fatal night. "He said ... he was going to kill me. And he was going to.''
Her counsel asked: "Are you able to tell us the last thing you remember going through your mind during this incident?'' Kissel replied: "I just wanted him to stop swinging that bat at me.''
During cross-examination, Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Peter Chapman suggested to Kissel that, since April, 2004, she had had plenty of time to read witness statements and forensic reports while in Siu Lam psychiatric center.
The trial, before justice Michael Lunn, continues Monday.
(The Standard) Kissel admits killing banker. By Albert Wong. August 5, 2005.
Accused murderer Nancy Kissel admitted Thursday she used a heavy metal ornament to kill her husband, banker Robert Kissel.
The accused was subjected to an intense afternoon of questioning on what she had earlier testified was persistent drug-fueled, forceful sexual abuse.
With his first question in cross-examination, Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Peter Chapman dealt with "just one little matter that [the accused] might be able to help us with - Do you accept that you killed Robert Kissel?'' he asked.
Kissel replied: "Yes.''
The prosecutor then asked: "Do you accept that you used that ornament to inflict those [fatal] injuries?''
She replied: "Yes.''
The prosecution alleges that Kissel, 41, murdered her husband on November 2, 2003, by serving him a milkshake laced with sedatives that left him unconscious at the foot of their bed before she bludgeoned him to death with the heavy metal ornament.
She has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail.
Kissel testified Wednesday there had been a furious struggle between her and her husband in their bedroom on the night of the killing. After knocking him on the head with the metal ornament while resisting more sexual abuse, she said, the banker charged at her with a baseball bat, repeatedly saying: "I'm going to kill you, you bitch.''
The victim's decomposing body was found in the early hours of November 7, 2003, wrapped in a rug in a storeroom at the couple's Parkview residential complex.
Earlier Thursday, she was asked by her counsel, Alexander King SC, whether she could remember how the fatal blows to the head of the deceased got there. She sat in the witness box in silence, shaking, and offered no reply.
The prosecutor established during cross-examination with the accused that aside from two occasions in 2003, she had never seen a psychiatrist and had no history of memory loss before the night of the alleged murder.
Chapman returned to Kissel's testimony where she described her life as a fashion and design student in New York, juggling three catering jobs to fund her husband's MBA and cocaine use.
"You were supporting him, you were giving him the money. How much would he spend on the drugs?'' asked Chapman.
Kissel replied: "It would vary. Sometimes US$100 [HK$780] a day, sometimes more.''
The prosecutor asked: "So you were giving him US$3,000-US$5,000 a month?''
The accused said: "There were times he received drugs without payment. I don't know where he got those drugs from. On occasions, friends would give him drugs.''
Chapman asked: "[US] $2,500?''"I don't know,'' she replied.
"US$2,000?'' he asked again.
"I don't know.''
"US$500?''
"I don't know.''
"So how much were you shelling out for Robert's cocaine habit? Give us a figure Mrs Kissel,'' said Chapman.
The accused said she could not, since her financial support went to food, rent and other expenses, but that she was largely paying for the drugs at the beginning of their relationship.
"And while all this was going on, you managed to purchase property in New York,'' said Chapman.
Kissel said she could not remember how the loft apartment in Greenwich Village was paid for.
Chapman asked: "While he was in Hong Kong, where was he getting his cocaine from?''
Kissel replied: "I don't know.'' She said she never asked where he got his supplies from and did not know whether he used it on business trips.
"Did you remind him that countries around this area take a pretty dim view of hard drugs?'' asked Chapman.
The accused said she only talked about the health issues.
"He's not much good to you busted in Malaysia on drugs charges, is he?'' asked Chapman. Kissel agreed.
When they came to Hong Kong, "did the frequency that he demanded anal sex change in any way?'' asked Chapman.
She said it "increased tremendously'' towards 2002.
"How often each month would you be having forced anal sex with Robert Kissel?'' he asked. She said she never counted."Give us a number Mrs Kissel?'' asked Chapman. She replied: "It wasn't about how many times. It was a progression of how we were together. Starting in different positions. The ability to move into those positions. Progression of sexual activity. There were times that he got very frustrated, by my changing, moving into ways he didn't want. It was a period in which things developed into something different. There was force involved.''
When Kissel testified that her husband had never used protection against AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, Chapman pointed out that two of her close friends had sexually contracted HIV and died of AIDS, including her maid of honor, Ali Gertz.
He asked if Gertz's fate had ever crossed her mind during the periods of sexual abuse, or when her husband was traveling and suspected of seeing other sexual partners. She did not believe those factors would make her husband "high-risk,'' although she had a "huge awareness of AIDS,'' when her friend was diagnosed
Chapman asked: "In relation to these activities - cocaine, alcohol-fueled anal sex with you by Robert Kissel. Did you at anytime tell anyone about it?'' "No,'' she replied. "It was something that was happening gradually in my marriage. Something I took responsibility for, not something you talk about to the girls.''
The prosecutor asked: "During the more violent episodes - that involved hair being pulled, ribs being broken and pain causing blood - did you ever scream out?'' "Did I scream out? - I may have,'' she replied.
"Did anyone ever hear you over five years?'' he asked. "I don't know ... a lot of the time, I cried,'' she said.
Chapman asked: "Have you ever been examined in relation to the results of forceful anal sex over this five-year period?'' "No, it's humiliating,'' she said.
The trial has been adjourned until Monday.
(SCMP) Standing room only as even the deceased's father finds his usual seat taken. By Polly Hui. August 5, 2005.
Nancy Kissel's trial drew its biggest crowd yet yesterday, spilling out of the courtroom as spectators lapped up the sensational revelations.
About 80 lawyers, students, journalists, Filipino maids and expatriates packed the courtroom to hear Kissel's fourth day of testimony. The crowd grew in the afternoon as news spread she had accepted during cross-examination in the morning that she had killed her husband, Robert Peter Kissel.
All 60 seats in the public gallery were occupied.
The deceased's father, William Kissel, who has been sitting on the same side of the public gallery every day, found his seat was taken by another person when he returned after lunch yesterday.
He and his daughter, Jane Clayton, who earlier testified for the prosecution, were seen moving over to the opposite side of the gallery, where Kissel's mother sat, for the first time in the trial.
Looking at the crowd, Mr Justice Michael Lunn ordered the court must make sure that the close relatives of the Kissels were provided with seats during the hearings. On an earlier day, the judge had commented on the stuffiness in the courtroom as crowds grew with public interest in the case, which opened at the beginning of June.
This week, officers working for the case had to resort to reserving seats for themselves by putting signs on them. Other members of the public and journalists were seen waiting outside the courtroom more than half an hour before it opened. Some said they wanted to grab the seats in the front rows because of the defendant's soft voice.
(SCMP) I killed my husband, Kissel tells courtroom. By Polly Hui. August 5, 2005.
Nancy Kissel yesterday admitted she killed her husband after inflicting multiple injuries to his head with a metal ornament.
But she could not recall why her father appeared at their luxury Parkview home, or her reporting to police that her husband had beaten her up - events that took place in the four days following the alleged murder.
Prosecutor Peter Chapman began his cross-examination of Kissel in the Court of First Instance by asking her: "Do you accept that you killed Robert Kissel?" She replied: "Yes."
Mr Chapman asked if she agreed she had used the metal ornament - identified by her yesterday - to inflict the injuries on Robert Peter Kissel as shown on a diagram drawn by the prosecution's pathologist. "Yes," she said. The pathologist said earlier that he found five potentially fatal wounds on the right side of the deceased's brain.
Kissel, 41, is accused of bludgeoning her husband to death with the ornament after serving him a drugged milkshake on November 2, 2003. She has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder.
Mr Chapman sought to cast doubt on Kissel's allegations that her husband had sexually and physically assaulted her since they arrived in Hong Kong in 1998. He asked if she had ever screamed out during her husband's episodes of sexual violence, which left her with broken ribs and bleeding from the anus. "I cried a lot. I may have [screamed]," she replied.
"Did anyone ever hear you in your household, Mrs Kissel, in those five years?" he asked. "I don't know... A lot of times, I just cried," she said, adding that her two Filipino maids, who lived in the flat, would be off-duty after 7pm.
"Did you ever consider going ... to your friends to say I can't take it any more?" Mr Chapman asked. "No... People hear what they wanted to hear," she said.
Mr Chapman asked if she had ever sought medical attention for the bleeding and injuries caused by anal sex allegedly forced on her by her husband. She said she had not because "it's humiliating".
Asked if her husband had used condoms during sex, she said no. Mr Chapman then asked if she knew whether Robert had slept with other women and had anal sex with them during his frequent business trips in Asia. "No," she replied.
Reminding her that one of her close friends in New York had died of sexually transmitted Aids, Mr Chapman asked why she did not go for a check-up. She said they had a check for HIV when they married and she did not believe her husband would be an Aids carrier.
The prosecutor asked if Kissel had told a psychiatrist her husband was expelled from high school for using drugs. She said yes.
Kissel said on Wednesday she had to pay for Robert's studies and cocaine when living in New York. But yesterday she said she did not know how much she had paid for the drug because she was paying for a variety of things.
Asked if she had seen Robert with a supply of cocaine in Hong Kong, the accused said: "I have never seen bags, mostly bottles."
Mr Chapman asked which of the prosecution witnesses' evidence she disputed. "[There were] so many people saying things that I don't have a recollection of," she said. "I am not sure whether they were right or wrong."
She disagreed with Robert's sister, Jane Clayton, when she said he was a "loyal, protective" husband. She did not believe Conchita Macaraeg, the maid who worked for her family and travelled with them for years, knew nothing about her fight with Robert. But it was difficult to pinpoint her other disputes because there had been weeks of evidence, she said.
In his examination-in-chief yesterday morning, defence counsel Alexander King SC asked Kissel to identify the baseball bat she said her husband kept in the bedroom. She stepped over to see the bat and returned to her seat trembling. She said he also had another similar bat in a closet.
Kissel told the court she remembered one of the figurines flew off the base of the metal ornament during her struggle with her husband on November 2.
"What caused it to fly off?" Mr Chapman asked. "The bat ... when it was swung," she said. She said earlier that her husband was beating her with the bat while she tried to defend herself with the ornament in the bedroom, but that she could not remember what happened afterwards.
Mr King told the accused she had earlier admitted putting sleeping pills in her husband's whisky bottle when they were staying at their holiday home in Vermont in the summer of 2003. She said she wanted to calm him down after seeing him hurt their eldest daughter, Elaine.
"Did you ever do the same thing in Hong Kong?" he asked. Kissel said she tried drugging a whisky bottle with sleeping pills again after returning from a trip to New York with her husband. But she got scared when she saw the pill settle at the bottom of the bottle in the "very bright" cabinet of the living room. She threw the bottle away and went to a supermarket, Great, to buy another bottle to replace it.
"I never did it again. I never thought about it," she said.
Mr King asked what she could say about the prosecution's allegations that she drugged a milkshake with a cocktail of sedatives before serving it to the deceased and another Parkview resident, Andrew Tanzer.
Kissel said on Wednesday that her two children and Mr Tanzer's daughter had helped her prepare the milkshake.
"It's a milkshake that I made for my children and someone else's children. I wouldn't harm my own children. I wouldn't harm someone else's children... I made the milkshake for my children in the afternoon. That's what I remembered," she said.
Mr King asked if she had any recollection of visiting doctor Annabelle Dytham in a Wan Chai clinic on the morning of November 6, 2003. "I don't remember," she replied.
Mr King asked if she remembered reporting to the police on November 6 about her husband's physical assault and handing over to officers a medical report from Dr Dytham on her multiple injuries - evidence given by prosecution witnesses. "I don't ... I don't know that," she replied.
Kissel was also shown CCTV stills of herself and her father, Ira Keeshin, in the lift of her Parkview block on November 5. "Do you know why he came to Hong Kong?" Mr King asked. "I remember speaking to him on the phone and not very clear the conversation I had with him. He said he was coming out to be with me," she said. But she did not know when he arrived in Hong Kong and could not recall where they went on that day.
The case continues on Monday before Mr Justice Michael Lunn.
From the Chinese-language media:
(Associated Press) Expat Murder Trial Rivets Hong Kong. By William Foreman. August 6, 2005.
He was a trim, athletic-looking investment banker for Merrill Lynch. She was a housewife raising three children in a luxury apartment with two maids. He's now dead, and she's accused of beating him to death in what's been dubbed the "milkshake murder."
The ongoing trial has riveted Hong Kong with a stream of sensational -- sometimes bizarre -- testimony about the sex, drugs and money that plagued the deeply troubled marriage in the wealthy world of Hong Kong expats.Two months into the trial, Nancy Ann Kissel admitted on Thursday she killed her husband, Robert, but she's still challenging the murder charge. Testimony continues Monday.
Nancy Kissel, 41, is accused of drugging Robert with a milkshake mixed with a cocktail of sedatives, including the date-rape drug Rohypnol. After giving him the drink, she allegedly bashed him on the head five times with a heavy metal ornament on Nov. 2, 2003.
The prosecution has described her as a cold, scheming woman from Minnesota who surfed the Internet for information about sleeping pills and sedatives months before the alleged murder. The prosecutor said Robert, 40, had told friends he suspected his wife had tried to drug him.
Robert, a New York native, installed spyware on Nancy's computer and hired a private detective to check whether she was having an affair. She later admitted to having a blue-collar boyfriend in America -- an electrician who worked on the couple's Vermont vacation home in 2003.
The prosecutor said Robert was infuriated about the affair and had given up on the deteriorating marriage. He had decided to tell Nancy he'd filed for divorce the day she killed him in the bedroom of their exclusive apartment complex on a mountain that looks out over the city, the prosecution said.
The next day, Nancy Kissel went on a shopping spree, buying sheets, cushions and a carpet, and she told her Filipino maids not to clean the master bedroom, the prosecution said.
Three days after the killing, Nancy asked maintenance workers to haul away a bulky roll of carpet to a storage locker in the apartment complex, the prosecution said. A maid noted the roll seemed unusually thick, but Nancy said it contained pillows and blankets, the prosecutor said. The workers complained of a strong fishy smell.
Nancy would have been a wealthy widow. Robert's younger sister, Jane Clayton, testified her brother's estate -- including life insurance, stocks and properties -- was worth about $18 million and that his wife was the primary beneficiary of his will.
The defense has painted a different picture of Robert. Nancy's lawyer has argued he was a workaholic who beat his wife up and frequently tried to ease his job stress with alcohol and cocaine. Nancy said he was hot-tempered with the kids, and that she once spiked his whisky with sedatives to calm him down.
She also complained that he was rough in bed, sometimes demanding anal sex that would cause bleeding. She said he once broke her ribs.
Nancy called herself a "desperate" housewife, and said she tried to kill herself in the final months of her miserable marriage. She said she researched drugs on the Internet because she was considering suicide with sleeping pills.
By early 2003, she said the couple barely spoke, and they communicated by notes and e-mail.
On the day her husband died, she said she prepared a milkshake for her children, who served a glass to Robert. She said she would never harm the children. Shortly after, her husband told her he was seeking a divorce and would take the children with him, she said.
They argued and began hitting each other, she said. Robert used a baseball bat, while Nancy used a heavy metal ornament with figurines. Under questioning from her lawyer, she testified that her husband's head was bloody but she couldn't remember what else happened. She said she remembered thinking Robert was about to kill her.
Nancy also said the next two months were a blur, and she couldn't remember anything about hauling away the rug, cleaning up the bloodied items in the bedroom or reporting to police that Robert beat her up then disappeared.
When the prosecutor began questioning her for the first time Thursday, he opened by asking whether she killed her husband. Nancy said "yes" in a firm voice. But she didn't change her plea of innocence to the murder charge.
(The Standard) Kissel admission caps trial's peak. By Albert Ho. August 8, 2005.
Accused murderer Nancy Kissel, who Thursday admitted she had used a heavy metal ornament to inflict the fatal injuries on her husband's head on November 2, 2003, faces another grilling from the prosecution today. In what was the trial's most dramatic week, the court heard daily new claims about the deceased's character, much of it highly unflattering. The often graphic testimony added further twists to a murder case which has already featured sex, lies, drugs and betrayal.
The week began with Nancy Kissel taking the stand. She gave a graphic account of drug use and sexual abuse. In a soft-spoken voice, Kissel said that her husband, former Merrill Lynch banker Robert Kissel, was a controlling and abusive husband who demanded to be shown "respect'' when he forcibly sodomized her.
The week ended every bit as dramatically with Nancy Kissel accepting a prosecution contention that she killed her husband.
Kissel, 41, is accused bludgeoning her husband to death with a heavy metal ornament after serving him a pink milkshake laced with sedatives which left him unconscious at the foot of the bed.
Nancy Kissel testified on Wednesday that the night of the murder had seen the couple argue about divorce. She said the dispute escalated into a furious struggle between her and her husband, who was wielding a baseball bat. Kissel said that she defended herself with the metal sculpture.
Kissel said that in resisting more sexual abuse, she knocked her husband on the head. After realizing he was bleeding, her husband came at her, swinging the baseball bat, and repeatedly saying, "I'm going to kill you, you bitch.''
In relation to the milkshake, alleged to have been laced with sedatives, she said she had made it for her children and that she would never harm children.
On Thursday, asked by her counsel, Alexander King, SC, whether she could recall how her husband ended up with five fatal wounds to his skull, she sat in her witness box, shaking, without reply.
Later Thursday, senior assistant director of public prosecutions, Peter Chapman, opened his cross-examination by asking, "Do you accept that you killed Robert Kissel?'' The accused replied "yes,'' and confirmed that she had used the metal ornament, the alleged murder weapon, to inflict the wounds.
Chapman then questioned her claims of Robert Kissel's alleged five-year history of alcohol and drug-fueled acts of forceful sodomy.
On Monday, the court was told the former banker's success in the banking world had changed him into a power-crazed, controlling workaholic who used cocaine to increase productivity. But "the hours took their toll,'' said the accused, and by the time he arrived in Hong Kong, his mood swings and demand for undisputed respect resulted in him hitting his wife on several occasions. She also said that the sex abuse resulted in her suffering a fractured rib. When her husband found out that the birth of their third child, their first son, would clash with an important business trip to Korea, he lost his temper and hit her, she claimed. At the same time, the banker "eventually came to love single malt whisky. It became his drink,'' said the accused. The stress and long hours of his work would result in drinking and cocaine use at night.
Financially, he also became more controlling, she said. In Hong Kong, he "condensed'' her spending, reducing her five credit cards to one. "It's easier to look at one statement than five,'' she said.Tuesday, she said that the words "Sleeping pills, drug overdose, medication causing heart attack,'' which were found to have been typed on her computer in late August, 2003, were the result of her suicidal thoughts, she claimed. She said that she had sought ways to induce a heart attack in order to protect her children as she "wouldn't want my children to be affected - of going through the knowledge that their mother committed suicide,'' she said.
She also said on Tuesday that her relationship with Michael Del Priore, who helped wire up their house in Vermont, involved three sexual encounters around July. Del Priore's openness and willingness to listen to her talk about the burden of being a corporate banker's wife and effectively bringing up three children on her own caused her to break down in tears, she said.
"It was the first time anybody ever stepped forward and confronted me on an issue that scares a lot of people,'' Kissel said. Consequently, she said they kept up a relationship for the next few months, communicating through letters and phone calls.
Wednesday, Kissel described her version of events on November 2, 2003, the day she killed her husband. She said her recollection of that day was "patchy.'' In the afternoon she remembers a chaotic scene in the kitchen as all the children helped with the making of milkshakes. Once the children had left, an argument began about divorce, she said. Seeing that her husband was holding onto a baseball bat, she picked up a metal ornament to confront him, she said. Waving a finger at her husband angered him, she said, and he then hit her and dragged her into the bedroom, trying to sexually abuse her.
As she was trying to crawl away, she swung the ornament behind her, without looking. "I felt that I hit something, and he let go,'' she said. When the banker realized his head was bleeding, he reportedly said "I'm going to f****** kill you'' and started swinging his baseball bat, hitting the metal ornament which she raised in front of her face.
But then? - "I don't remember,'' she said.
Chapman continues with his questioning today.
The high profile murder of a top Merrill Lynch banker took a dramatic turn of events when accused murderer Nancy Kissel accepted on Thursday that she used a heavy metal ornament to the inflict fatal injuries on her husband.
Nancy Kissel, 41, was then subjected to an intense afternoon of questioning for details about the alleged history of persistent drug-fuelled, forceful sodomy.
With his very first question in cross-examination, Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Peter Chapman dealt with "just one little matter that (the accused) might be able to help us on; Do you accept that you killed Robert Kissel?'' he asked. "Yes,'' she replied."Do you accept that you used that ornament to inflict those (fatal) injuries?'' "Yes,'' she replied.
Chapman noted that throughout the trial the accused had been taking notes and passing messages to her lawyers from the dock. With her knowledge of the prosecution case, "can you help us please, with which of those (prosecution) evidence, do you dispute?''
"I've heard a lot of people talk about what they participated in, what they saw, and what they said. I'm not sure it's about disputing, but trying to understand what's been said. So many people saying things of what I don't have any recollection. I'm not sure of whether it's about it being right or wrong,'' she answered.
Pressed further by Chapman, she said she "disagreed'' with the fact she was "hot-tempered'', a description offered by her former domestic helper, Maximina Macaraeg.
Nancy Kissel is accused of serving her husband a pink milkshake laced with sedatives, which left him unconscious at the foot of her bed as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003.On Wednesday, she told the court there had been a furious struggle between herself and her husband in their master bedroom that night. After knocking her husband on the head with the alleged murder weapon while resisting more sexual abuse, Robert Kissel charged at her with a baseball bat, repeatedly saying, "I'm going to kill you, you bitch,'' she claims. The decomposing body of the former Merrill Lynch banker was found in the early hours of November 7, 2003, wrapped in a rug in a storeroom at the Parkview residential complex. She has denied the charge of murder and is out on bail.
Earlier Thursday morning, she was asked by her counsel, Alexander King SC, whether she could remember how the fatal blows to the head of the deceased got there. She sat in her witness box in silence, shaking, and offered no reply.
Chapman's first line of questioning, and consequent response, stunned the courtroom just before the lunch break. When the trial resumed, the courtroom was packed to the brim with many in the public gallery unable to find a seat.
The prosecutor established with the accused at the beginning of his unrelenting cross-examination that apart from two occasions in 2003, she had never seen a psychiatrist and does not have a history of memory loss prior to that fatal night, November 2, 2003.
Chapman then took the accused to the beginning of her testimony where she described her life as student in New York juggling three catering jobs to fund her former husband's MBA and cocaine use.
"So what were the three restaurants that you worked at the time, do they have names?'' he asked. The accused explained that she knew people in the restaurant business who would phone her up when there were catering jobs available but she did "not really'' know of any names. In other words, "these three jobs you held at the same time were for nameless corporate catering-related organisations,'' said Chapman.
Referring to the deceased's alleged frequent cocaine use since his days as an MBA student, "you were supporting him, you were giving him the money'' how much would he spend on the drugs? asked Chapman.
"It would vary. Sometimes 100 dollars a day, sometimes more.''
"So you were giving him three to five thousand dollars a month?'' he asked.
"There were times he received drugs without paymentI don't know where he got those drugs from. On occasions, friends would give him drugs,'' she said.
"2, 500?'' he asked. "I don't know.'' "2,000?'' he asked. "I don't know.'' "500?'' he asked. "I don't know,'' she said.
"So how much were you shelling out for Robert's cocaine habit? Give us a figure Mrs Kissel,'' said Chapman.
She said she was unable to give a figure, since her financial support went to food, rent and various facilities, but that she was largely paying for the drugs in the beginning of their relationship. "And while all this was going on, you managed to purchase property in New York,'' noted Chapman. She said she could not remember how the loft apartment in Greenwich Village was paid for.
Moving on to their relocation, "while he was in Hong Kong, where was he getting his cocaine from?'' asked Chapman. "I don't know,'' she replied. She said she never asked where he got his supplies from and did not know whether she used it on business trips.
"Did you remind him that countries around this area take a pretty dim view of hard drugs?'' asked Chapman. She said she only talked about the health issues and not the legal implications. "He's not much good to you busted in Malaysia on drugs charges is he?'' Nancy agreed.
When they came to Hong Kong, "did the frequency that he demanded anal sex change in any way?'' asked Chapman. She said it "increased tremendously'' towards 2002.
"How often each month would you be having forced anal sex with Robert Kissel?'' he asked. She said she never counted. "Give us a number Mrs Kissel.''"It wasn't about how many times. It was a progression of how we were together. Starting in different positions. The ability to move into those positions. Progression of sexual activity. There were times that he got very frustrated, by my changing, moving into ways he didn't wantIt was a period in which things developed into something different. There was force involved.''
She said sometimes there would be cocaine involved, sometimes alcohol, sometimes both, sometimes neither.
"Did Robert Kissel ever wear a condom?'' asked Chapman. "No.''
"Did he ever use any lubricant or gel?'' asked Chapman. "No,'' she replied. "And he never had a problem effecting anal entry throughout this period?'' he asked. She said she would bleed from the anus, two times a year, each time for "maybe a day or two.''
While on business trips, "you wouldn't know he slept with other women in other countries and had anal sex with them, would you,'' said Chapman. Nancy agreed.
Chapman noted that two of the accused's close friends had sexually contracted HIV and died of Aids, including her maid of honour, Ali Gertz. "Did Gertz's fate ever cross your mind while you were passing blood'' as a result of forceful sodomy, asked Chapman. He noted that given the deceased's alleged cocaine habit, appetite for sodomy and frequent travelling, he might be considered "high risk.''The accused said, "I had a huge awareness of Aids, when my friend was diagnosed'' and that she did not believe those factors would make him "high-risk.''
"In relation to these activities -- cocaine, alcohol fuelled anal sex with you by Robert Kissel. Did you at anytime tell anyone about it?'' asked Chapman. "No,'' she replied, "it was something that was happening gradually in my marriage. Something I took responsibility for, not something you talk about to the girls.''
"During the more violent episodes that involved hair being pulled, ribs being broken and pain causing blood did you ever scream out?'' he asked. "Did I scream out? I may have,'' she replied.
"Did anyone ever hear you over five years?'' he asked. "I don't know, a lot of the time I was facing down. A lot of the time, I cried,'' she said,
"Have you ever been examined in relation to the results of forceful anal sex over this five year period?'' he asked. "No, it's humiliating,'' she replied.
The trial has been adjourned until Monday acommodate an appointment for a juror. Nancy Kissel will continue to be questioned before Justice Michael Lunn.
Yet another account from the same source:
Accused murderer Nancy Kissel, who accepted last Thursday that she had used a heavy metal ornament to inflict the fatal injuries to her husband's head on November 2, 2003, faces another grilling cross-examination today. In the trial's most dramatic week of proceedings, day after day the court heard new claims about the deceased's character, adding to the twist of the murder case which has already heard a history of, gay porn, sex, lies, love and betrayal. Beginning with the claims that the former Merrill Lynch banker, Robert Kissel, was a controlling and abusive husband who demanded to be shown respect during acts of sodomy, last week's proceedings concluded with his wife admitting that she killed her husband.
Kissel, 41, is accused of serving her husband a pink milkshake laced with sedatives which left him unconscious at the foot of the bed as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal ornament. She testified on Wednesday that on that fatal Halloween weekend, there had been an argument about divorce, which escalated into a furious struggle between her husband wielding a baseball bat, and herself with the metal ornament. In resisting more sexual abuse, she knocked her husband on the head. After realising he was bleeding, her husband came at her, swinging the baseball bat, saying repeatedly "I'm going to kill you, you bitch,'' said the accused. In relation to the milkshake, alleged to have been laced with sedatives, she said she had made it for her children and would never harm children.
When asked by her counsel, Alexander King, SC, whether she could recall how her husband ended up with five fatal wounds to his skull, she sat in her witness box, shaking, without reply.
Later Thursday, Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Peter Chapman opened his cross-examination, asking, "do you accept that you killed Robert Kissel?''
The accused replied "yes,'' and confirmed that she had used the metal ornament, the alleged murder weapon, to inflict the wounds. Chapman then proceeded with his questioning of Robert Kissel's alleged five-year history of alcohol and drug-fuelled acts of forceful sodomy on his wife.Monday, the court heard that the former banker's success in the banking world changed him into a power-crazed, controlling workaholic who used cocaine to increase productivity.
But "the hours took its toll,'' said the accused, and by the time he came to Hong Kong, his mood swings and demand for undisputed respect, resulted in him hitting his wife on several occasions.Sex became "predominantly oral sex for him and anal sex for me,'' she said. Once, as she resisted being flipped around into a position to facilitate his sexual preference, she said she "heard something pop'' and later realised she had fractured a rib.
When her husband found out that the birth of their third child, their first son, would clash with an important business trip in Korea, he lost his temper and hit his wife, she claimed.
At the same time, the banker "eventually came to love single malt whisky. It became his drink,'' said the accused. The stress and long hours of his work would result in drinking and cocaine use at night. But instead of shying away, "it's what made him tick -- the power of it all, succeeding.''Financially, he also became more controlling, subjecting her decorating duties on their luxury house in Vermont to methodical financial scrutiny, she claimed. In Hong Kong, he "condensed'' her spending, reducing her five credit cards to one. "He wanted a better control over what I was spending. It's easier to look at one statement than five,'' she said.
Tuesday, she said that the words, "Sleeping pills, Drug Overdose, Medication Causing heart attack,'' which were found to have been typed on her computer in late August, 2003, were a result of her suicidal thoughts. She said that she had sought ways to induce a heart attack for the protection of children as she "wouldn't want my children to be affected -- of going through the knowledge of their mother committing suicide,'' she said.
She also said on Tuesday, that she had a relationship with Michael Del Priore, who helped "wire up'' their house in Vermont, which involved three sexual encounters around July. Del Priore's openness and willingness to hear her speak about the burden of being a corporate banker's wife effectively bringing up three children on her own caused her to break down in tears. "It was the first time anybody ever stepped forward and confronted me on an issue that scares a lot of people. People look at you and see change and they don't really want to know,'' said the accused. Consequently, they kept up a relationship for the next few months, communicating through letters and phone calls.
Wednesday, the accused described her version of events on November 2, 2003, the day she killed her husband. She said her recollection of that day was "patchy.''
In the afternoon she remembers a chaotic scene in the kitchen as the children all helped with the making of milkshakes. Since it had just been Halloween, they decided to add red food colouring to the milkshake to make it "Halloweeny.''Once the children had left leaving, an argument began about divorce, said the accused. Seeing that her husband was holding onto a baseball bat, she picked up a metal ornament as she went to the doorway to confront him, she said. Her waving a finger at her husband angered him, who hit her and dragged her into the bedroom, trying to sexually abuse her, said the accused.
As she was trying to crawl away, she swung the ornament behind her, without looking. "I felt that I hit something, and he let go,'' she said.When the banker realised his head was bleeding, he said "I'm going to fucking kill you'' and started swinging his baseball bat, hitting the metal ornament as she raised it in front of her face.
But then? "I don't remember,'' she said.Thursday, she also told the court that she could not remember any of the events in the days after she killed her husband, which the prosecution alleged were part of her attempted cover-up.
Chapman then proceeded on asking for details of the banker's alleged history of alcohol and drug-fuelled sexual abuse, such as where he got his drugs from, how much was he spending, the frequency and injuries the accused sustained during the abuse, and why the risk of AIDS, given his frequent travels, had not been considered.Chapman continues with his questioning today, before Justice Michael Lunn.
