The Nancy Kissel Case - Part 53

(Associated Press via Boston Globe)  Defense gives closing argument in Hong Kong murder trial for U.S. housewife.  By Sylvia Hui.  August 29, 2005.

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 northeastern 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, in the northern U.S. state of Minnesota.

The defense was to continue giving its closing argument on Tuesday.


(Reuters)  Wife did not plan to kill banker, HK lawyer says.  August 29, 2005.

The wife of a prominent American banker in Hong Kong killed him with such an obvious lack of planning that the crime could not have been premeditated, her lawyer told Hong Kong's high court on Monday.

Rounding up the defense case in the three-month trial, lawyer Alexander King said that the way Nancy Kissel disposed of Robert Kissel's body and tried to cover up the crime afterwards "defy common sense" and showed she did not plan on killing him.

Nancy, 41, has admitted to killing the top Merrill Lynch banker on November 2, 2003, but has pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder.  If convicted of murder, she could be jailed for life.

Prosecutors say she searched the Internet for details on drugs, obtained them from doctors and gave her husband a milkshake spiked with sedatives before bludgeoning him to death. She has denied those allegations.

The trial has riveted Hong Kong and its expatriate community with tales of rough sex, marital violence and infidelity.  Nancy Kissel told the court earlier that her husband had often flown into rages fueled by cocaine and alcohol and had abused her physically and sexually for years.

She said she had struck her husband five times on the right side of his face with a metal statue after he hit her repeatedly, but added that she had no recollection of what happened afterwards on the night of November 2.

King said it simply did not make sense that she would choose to kill her husband on a busy Sunday afternoon, when their three children and maids would be going in and out of the flat.  She also called managers of their apartment estate after the killing, identified herself and rented a storeroom -- which she later used to store his body. Police found Robert's decomposing body rolled up in a carpet in the storeroom on November 6.

"Now, she's planning to kill her husband and getting away with it. Now, where was the planning? ... Nothing in all of these shows any planning," King said.

King also challenged prosecutors' claims that she had sought out doctors and complained of insomnia in order to obtain drugs which she later used to poison her husband.

Robert had a long history of back pain and other ailments and their home was filled with such a plethora of drugs and painkillers that she would not have needed to procure any more if she had wanted to poison him, King said.

King described Robert as a person who wanted full control over his family, forbade his wife to speak on the phone with her father and micro-managed even small household expenses despite his considerable wealth, valued at $18 million.

"He was someone who was very controlling, manipulative and someone who abused his wife sexually, who wanted to be in control all the time," King said.

Prosecutors have painted Robert as a loving father and husband who lost hope of saving his marriage after he found out that his wife was still communicating with her TV repairman lover a few weeks before he died.

During the trial, Nancy admitted to the affair, which happened in the United States between March and July 2003, when she fled there with their three children to escape the SARS epidemic in Hong Kong.

The prosecution said Kissel had decided to divorce his wife and was going to tell her that on the night that he was murdered.

A verdict from the seven-member jury is expected by the end of this week.


(The Standard)  Prosecution case a farce.  By Albert Wong.  August 30, 2005.

The saga of Nancy Kissel's alleged murder of her husband, as told by the prosecution, is "like something out of a movie script'' and "simply defies common sense,'' defense counsel Alexander King SC told the High Court Monday, as the trial, which has riveted Hong Kong for months draws to a climactic end.

Instead, the victim Robert Kissel's ruthless competitiveness in work and play, his detailed supervision of household finances, his installation of spyware and hiring of private detectives, were evidence of the paranoid, controlling nature of a violently abusive husband, King submitted.

King made his final argument to a jury comprising five men and two women before a packed court, for the first time holding the jury's attention for the whole day as he elaborated why Nancy Kissel, 41, has pleaded not guilty by reason of self defense to murdering her husband.

The victim's father, William Kissel, stalked out of the courtroom after only a few minutes of the final speech.

In his final arguments, King invited the jury to use common sense and decide that the prosecution's case paints what he called a dramatic "colliding of universes.''

"The prosecution would have you believe,'' said King, that the "cheating, ungrateful, plotting, scheming wife'' had laid down a murderous plan "there and ready to go'' while simultaneously, the husband, had been planning to reveal to her on the fatal night of November 2, 2003, that he wanted a divorce, thereby springing her trap.

The motive, according to the prosecution, is equally "a classic,'' said King: "Money, love, lust and sex.''

King said the prosecution has referred to Kissel's lover, Michael Del Priore, who lives in a trailer park in the New England state of Vermont, as "someone living a wretched life, eyeing up wealthy people'' and then tacitly encouraging a pre-meditated plan to kill.

"That is pure speculation,'' King said.

Robert Kissel had been searching for an excuse to have divorce proceedings go in his favor, hence his obsessive spying on his wife, said King.

The deceased knew that if Nancy Kissel filed for divorce on the grounds of spousal abuse and sexual violence, the ensuing proceedings, as of all divorce suits, would be "ugly, dirty and messy'' and that "his whole world (and career) would come crashing down,'' said King.

Because premeditation should be ruled out by common sense and given the solid evidence of Robert Kissel's controlling nature, the scenario of the husband confronting his wife with the threat of removing the children from her care, escalating into a furious struggle in which she fears for her life, was the genuine one, he submitted.

The accused inflicted five fatal blows and stopped only when she knew he couldn't harm her, said King.

"How can someone turn around and decide how many blows are necessary? Adrenaline and fear takes over and you do what you can to defend yourself,'' said King.

King spent much of the day listing a series of factors in the prosecution case showing that "the theory of pre-meditation goes out the window.''

He noted that the alleged murder weapon is a "family heirloom. What's more likely? That being chosen as the murder weapon, or that being picked up in self-defense?'' he asked.

Despite all the evidence that has been based upon e-mail correspondence captured by E-blaster spyware, nothing suggested that the accused was planning a future with Del Priore. "Where is the e-mail that says, `Oh my darling, we will soon be together?''' he asked.

The suggestion that she killed for the money is also "nonsense'' said King. Claiming life insurance because one's husband has "disappeared'' is not possible.

"Their (Life Insurance Agents') investigation would be a lot more thorough than the investigation conducted in this trial,'' he said.

King noted that for most of 2003, the accused had already set up a home with her three children in a lovely house in Vermont. If she wanted money, she could have said, "Sorry Robert, I'm not coming home, I'm filing for divorce,'' said King. Instead, when she received the call, "she quickly packed up to go home.''

All the evidence in the case show that the accused "was a very good organizer,'' he said.

"Where was the evidence for the disposal of the body before November 2? There simply is none,'' said King. Instead, the accused's "bizarre'' actions after that fatal incident, show her "meltdown in her mental condition.''

King asked why, if the rug was used to "dispose of the body,'' brightly colored cushions were secured to the outside of the rug, "decorated it in such a way, making it almost unforgettable.''

He also noted, that according to the chronology of events, "she must have spent at least two nights in the bedroom with the body of her dead husband,'' said King.

If she had a pre-meditated scheme, she certainly did not rely upon it, he submitted.

Robert Kissel on the other hand, wanted to be "in total control'' at all times.

When he suspected at the end of 2002, that their marriage might be in trouble, "did he use his usual energy to say, `right, let's go to marriage counsellors and sort it out'? What did he do? He installed spyware,'' said King, "so that six times a day, Robert Kissel could check on his wife.''

He reminded the jury that the E-Blaster was installed before the accused had even started a relationship with Del Priore.

According to the deceased's colleague David Noh, the murdered husband had also explored the possibility that in the event of a divorce the children would live with domestic helpers in an apartment separate from either parent.

"All the evidence is that she is a first-rate mother'' said King, but Robert Kissel wanted "a situation where you don't have the children either.''

"The truth (of Robert Kissel's character) is unpleasant, is brutal,'' said King. He was a man, who according to internet records, "in advance of travelling to destinations, is looking to procure gay sexual services,'' said King.

He would refer to his wife in that way again, on November 2, 2003 when he was enraged at being hit by his wife, a reverse of the usual scenario of him doing the hitting and bore down on her saying "I'm going to f****** kill you, you bitch,''submitted King.

King will continue his final speech today before Justice Michael Lunn.


(The Standard)  Defence says police probe was 'substandard'.  By Albert Wong.  August 30, 2005.

The police investigation into the death of high-flying American banker, Robert Kissel, was botched and bungled from the outset, denying his accused wife Nancy a fundamental legal right, the High Court heard on Monday.

Defense counsel Alexander King SC told the jury they cannot rely upon the police investigation beyond reasonable doubt, because officers "thought this was an open and shut case'' and made only "cursory glances'' resulting in unanswered questions and tainted evidence.

Furthermore, the officers failed to give Nancy Kissel, "a simple application of legal rights,'' meaning that they now have to maintain, despite grilling cross-examinations, "the stupid and ridiculous story about investigating a missing person'' when they knocked on her door on November 6, 2002, King said.

The result of this "substandard'' investigation, and the maintenance of a missing-person investigation, which King called "rubbish,'' is that the jury has been deprived of a confirmatory record of the true events on the night Nancy Kissel was arrested, King argued. King noted that a chief inspector, a senior inspector and a superintendent, along with a large team of officers, descended upon the Hong Kong Parkview residential complex for what they said was a missing person, or an assault investigation.

"That simply doesn't make sense,'' said King. He noted that Superintendent Nat Nichols, the senior officer involved in the investigation at the time, has not testified.

Possible vital evidence, in the medicine cabinet of the master bathroom was also missed, allowing domestic helpers to discard items during their packing, said King.

A domestic helper also testified during the trial that the master bedroom was never cordoned off and a friend of the victim had said the apartment was "wide open'' and that the children and their dog were "roaming around.''

When police told Nancy Kissel that they were investigating the missing person and her assault claim, they already had four search warrants, primarily for the storeroom, stating "it is very suspicious that Mr Kissel had been killed by his wife.''

"Could it be any clearer?'' asked King, that their intention was to investigate murder, not a missing person or an assault.

There was then a six-minute period in the master bedroom when Nancy Kissel described to police how she had been assaulted by her husband.

"But the most senior officer at the scene, who says he is investigating an assault or missing person, can't remember a single thing she said,'' noted King.

"If it just stopped there it would be bad enough. But it doesn't stop there, it gets a whole lot worse,'' said King.

He said that when the police were notified on November 8 they had missed a black bag of bloodied items in their initial search, they should have thought "we better search every room.''

But they didn't, and had to be asked to return again on November 12 and 13 to collect more bags of bloodied items, said King.

King noted that if it were not for the accused's solicitor, there would not even be a baseball bat available for examination in this trial.

Senior Inspector See Kwong-tak, had testified that they never found nor seized a baseball bat.

"Can you accept that evidence? I submit not,'' said King, drawing the jury's attention to the fact that government scientist Lun Tze-shan had testified that See had, "surprise, surprise'' informed him of a baseball bat.

More recently, no fingerprinting was conducted on that baseball bat. King submitted that this was because police officers' fingerprints would have shown up since they picked it up and discarded it, said King. Today, King will elaborate further before Justice Michael Lunn why the work of the government forensic scientists was dubious and cannot be relied upon.


(SCMP; no link)  Kissel killed husband in self-defence, then 'melted down', says counsel.  By Polly Hui.  August 30, 2005.

Nancy Kissel was "in fear for her life" as she beat her husband to death with a lead statue after he threatened to kill her, her lawyer told the Court of First Instance yesterday.

The defendant "melted down" after the trauma, leading her into a series of bizarre acts, including sleeping with her husband's body for at least two nights and calling his mobile phone twice, Alexander King SC said in his closing speech.

Mr King, who urged the jury to acquit Kissel of murder, argued that she had acted in lawful self-defence in the killing in November 2, 2003.

He said the prosecution, which alleged Nancy Kissel drugged her husband with a milkshake before dealing him five fatal blows, had failed to prove its case beyond doubt. It was the first time the defence had outlined its case since the trial began in early June.

Mr King said the fateful events were sparked when Robert Kissel, armed with a baseball bat, told his wife that he had filed for divorce and would be taking their three children.

"This was payback time. He was going to finally tell her that he was divorcing her, not her divorcing him. He had controlled every other aspect of her life. The one thing left in her life was her children," he said.

At the sight of the bat, the accused grabbed the lead heirloom from the dining room to protect herself. She was then dragged into the bedroom, where her husband demanded sex.

During the struggle, the deceased sat on his bed and found his forehead bleeding.

"Robert Kissel had never been hit before by his wife. It's always been him doing the beating. At that time, he lost his temper. He said: `I am going to f***ing kill you ... you f***ing bitch'," Mr King said.

He asked the jury to consider the shape of the injuries to Robert Kissel's head, which he said matched the curved shape of the ornament's damaged base. The defence contends that the base of the ornament arched up when Robert Kissel hit it with the baseball bat.

In his closing speech last Friday, prosecutor Peter Chapman argued that Nancy Kissel, 41, harboured a murderous intent because she had dealt five fatal blows to her husband's head.

But Mr King said adrenaline and fear had taken over his client as she flung the ornament at her husband.

"In the middle of a fight, how could someone of Mrs Kissel's size turn around, make sure that her husband didn't get up again" before deciding to deal further blows, he said.

The body of the senior Merrill Lynch banker was found on November 7, 2003, rolled up in a carpet in a storeroom at the luxury Parkview estate where the family lived.

Mr King described the banker as a paranoid and manipulative husband, who abused cocaine and subjected his wife to frequent sexual and physical assaults.

He suggested that Nancy Kissel had suffered from dissociative amnesia after the killing.

"Her behaviour could almost be described as bizarre. She almost went on living as if nothing had happened," he said.

Mr King said Nancy Kissel had not asked Parkview workmen to carry her husband's body to the storeroom until November 5, 2003.

"She must have spent at least two nights in her bedroom with the body. It shows that what happened afterwards was she melted down," he said.


The prosecution's case against Nancy Kissel is "like something out of a movie script'' and "simply defies common sense'' the High Court heard on Monday.

Defence counsel Alexander King, SC, submitted his final submission to a jury comprising five men and two women on Monday, before a packed court as the murder trial that has rivetted the Hong Kong local and overseas media all summer draws to a climactic end.

For the first time in the trial, King, who did not submit an opening speech, held the attention of the jury for the whole day, as he elaborated why Nancy Kissel, 41, is pleading not guilty to murdering her husband Robert Kissel because of lawful self-defense.

King however, failed to maintain the attention of the father of the deceased, William Kissel, who left the courtroom after only a few minutes of the final speech.

In his final arguments, King invited the jury use their common sense and see that the prosecution case paints a dramatic "colliding of universes.''

"The prosecution would have you believe,'' said King, that on the one hand, the "cheating, ungrateful, plotting, scheming wife'' has laid down a murderous plan "there and ready to go'' while simultaneously, the husband, has been planning to reveal to her on that fatal night, November 2, 2003, that he wants a divorce, thereby springing her trap.

The motive, according to the prosecution, is equally "a classic,'' said King: "Money, love, lust and sex.''

King said the prosecution has used negative connotations when referring to Kissel's lover who lives in a trailer park in the New England state of Vermont, painting him as "someone living a wretched life, eyeing up wealthy people'' and then tacitly encouraging a pre-meditated plan to kill.

"That is pure speculation,'' King said.

Instead, Robert Kissel's ruthless competitiveness in work and play, his detailed supervision of household finances, his installation of spyware and hiring of private detectives, is evidence of the paranoid, controlling nature of a violently abusive husband, King submitted.

Robert Kissel had been searching for an excuse to have divorce proceedings go in his favor, hence his obsessive spying on his wife, said King. The deceased knew that if the accused filed for divorce on the grounds of spousal abuse and sexual violence, the ensuing proceedings, as of all divorce suits, would be "ugly, dirty and messy'' and that "his whole world (and career) would come crashing down,'' said King.

Given that common sense should rule out premeditation, and the solid evidence of Robert Kissel's controlling nature, the scenario of the husband confronting his wife with the threat of removing the children from her care, escalating into a furious struggle in which she fears for her life, is the genuine one, he submitted.

The accused inflicted five fatal blows and stopped only when she knew he couldn't harm her, said King.

"How can someone turn around and decide how many blows are necessary? Adrenaline and fear takes over and you do what you can to defend yourself,'' said King.

King spent much of the day listing a series of factors in the prosecution case which show that "the theory of pre-meditation goes out the window.''

He noted that the alleged murder weapon is a "family heirloom. What's more likely? That being chosen as the murder weapon, or that being picked up in self-defense?'' he asked.

Despite all the evidence that has been based upon e-mail correspondence captured by E-blaster spyware, there is nothing to suggest that the accused was planning a future with Michael Del Priore. "Where is the e-mail that says, 'Oh my darling, we will soon be together?''' he asked.

The suggestion that she killed for the money is also "nonsense'' said King. Claiming life insurance because one's husband has "disappeared'' is not possible.

"Their (Life Insurance Agents') investigation would be a lot more thorough than the investigation conducted in this trial,'' he said.

King noted that for most of 2003, the accused had already set up a home with her three children in a lovely house in Vermont. If she wanted money, she could have said, "sorry Robert, I'm not coming home, I'm filing for divorce,'' said King. Instead, when she received the call, "she quickly packed up to go home.''

All the evidence in the case show that the accused "was a very good organizer,'' he said.

"Where was the evidence for the disposal of the body before November 2? There simply is none,'' said King. Instead, the accused's "bizarre'' actions after that fatal incident, show her "meltdown in her mental condition.''

King asked why, if the rug was used to "dispose of the body,'' that brightly colored cushions were secured to the outside of the rug, "decorated it in such a way, making it almost unforgettable.''

He also noted, that according to the chronology of events, "she must have spent at least two nights in the bedroom with the body of her dead husband,'' said King.

If she had a pre-meditated scheme, she certainly did not rely upon it, he submitted.

Robert Kissel on the other hand, wanted to be "in total control'' at all times. When he suspected at the end of 2002, that their marriage might be in trouble, "did he use his usual energy to say, `right lets go to marriage counsellors and sort it out'? What did he do? He installed spyware,'' said King, "so that six times a day, Robert Kissel could check on his wife.''

He reminded the jury that the E-Blaster was installed before the accused had even started a relationship with Del Priore.

According to his colleague David Noh, the deceased had also explored the possibility in the event of a divorce that the children live with the domestic helpers in a separate apartment from either parent.

"All the evidence is that she is a first-rate mother'' said King, but Robert Kissel wanted "a situation where you don't have the children either.''

"The truth (of Robert Kissel's character) is unpleasant, is brutal,'' said King. He was a man, who according to internet records, "in advance of travelling to destinations, is looking to procure gay sexual services,'' said King. Records also show that his first search term on Google in April, 2003, was "my wife is a bitch.''

He would refer to his wife in that way again, on November 2, 2003 when he was enraged at being hit by his wife, a reverse of the usual scenario of him doing the hitting, and bore down on her saying "I'm going to f****** kill you, you bitch,'' submitted King.

Earning US$2 million (HK$15.6 million) on average in annual bonuses on top of a US$175, 000 salary as a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch "does not put that person in a superior position in the family,'' said King. "How can you measure the contribution of a wife, of a mother? There is no price you can put on that job.''

King will continue his final speech today before Justice Michael Lunn.