The trail of “milkshake murderer” Nancy Kissel has continued in Hong Kong this week and events in the courtroom have continued to attract great media interest.
Ms. Kissel, who was convicted of the murder of her husband Robert in 2005, successfully appealed for a retrial last year on the grounds that her conviction was unsafe due to procedural flaws in the initial trial. In January Kissel altered her plea and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
During the trial prosecutors have accused Ms. Kissel of murdering her husband by serving him a milkshake that was laced with drugs before beating him to death with a solid lead object. The lead prosecutor, David Perry, claims that she was of sound mind when she planned the crime and attempted to hide the evidence by wrapping her husband’s body in a carpet and placing it in a storeroom. In response, her defense have argued that Ms. Kissel’s actions were provoked by years of physical and sexual abuse and that she was suffering from a mental disorder. They rebutted the prosecutions claims that the murder was planed arguing that this was evidenced by her failure to make plans concerning how she would dispose of the body.
Yesterday the retrial was adjourned as a result of Nancy Kissel’s outburst in court, during which she claimed she could “see” her husband in court. Kissel, wailing in the direction of one jury member, repeatedly shouted, “He’s going to hurt my children! I can see him!” The judge vacated the court and allowed Kissel’s lawyer to comfort her. The trail was adjourned until Monday.
The case is HKSAR v. Nancy Ann Kissel, HCCC55/2010 in Hong Kong’s High Court of First Instance.
