Robert Kissel murder case

Nancy Kissel during the 2005 trial

The Nancy Kissel murder case was a highly publicised criminal trial in Hong Kong, in which Nancy Kissel was convicted of the murder of her husband, investment banker Robert, in their apartment on 2 November 2003.

The case was known as the "milkshake murder" because Kissel was alleged to have incapacitated her husband by serving him a strawberry milkshake full of sedatives before bludgeoning him to death. It was the highest profile murder of an expatriate in Hong Kong's history, and the court hearing was packed. Kissel was at first convicted of murder in 2005 and was handed a mandatory life sentence. The Court of Final Appeal overturned the conviction in February 2010, citing legal errors, and ordered a fresh hearing that began on 12 January 2011. On 25 March 2011, she was again found guilty of her husband's murder by a nine-member jury, and sentenced to life in prison.

Background

Robert and Nancy Kissel married in New York in 1989 where Alison Gertz was her maid of honor. The couple arrived in Hong Kong in 1997 with their three children, and resided at the Hong Kong Parkview.^{[citation needed]} The children attended Hong Kong International School.

Robert was a vice president in Goldman Sachs' Asian special situations group. Merrill Lynch hired him from Goldman in 2000 to head its distressed assets business in Asia outside Japan.^{[citation needed]}

The murder

On a return trip to the United States in mid 2003, Nancy met and had an affair with Michael Del Priore, the twice-married electrical repairman who had rewired the Kissel home in Vermont. They remained in frequent telephone communication during the days immediately following the murder.

Robert was suspicious of Nancy's infidelity, and had hired a New York private detective to spy on his wife, as well as secretly installed spyware on her computer. She claims to have had some violent disagreements with her husband, and says that her husband claimed to have initiated proceedings for divorce and for the custody of their children.

Nancy allegedly drugged her husband by having their six year old daughter give him a strawberry milkshake laced with a cocktail of sedatives. When it had taken effect and the children were out of the apartment, she bludgeoned him to death. She then rolled up his body in a carpet and had it put it into their storeroom in the Parkview complex.

After her arrest, Nancy admitted to killing her husband in self defense, claiming that she had been in an unhappy marriage and the victim of domestic violence. She claimed her husband had subjected her to rape and sodomy over a five year period. She attempted to portray Robert as a work-crazed and controlling husband, who had succumbed to habitual and regular cocaine and alcohol abuse since going on an MBA course.

The trial began in June 2005 at Hong Kong's High Court with the prosecution alleging that she murdered her husband and she pleading not guilty.^[1][2] She admitted under cross examination that she had bludgeoned her husband to death, but claimed it was in self-defense after an argument with her husband about divorce had escalated, leading him to sexually attack her, and then, when she resisted, to swing at her with a baseball bat. But she claimed memory loss, testifying she had no knowledge of how she inflicted five head wounds with a heavy metal sculpture. She admitted to using Stilnox, one of the sedatives found in her husband's body, to doctor a bottle of whiskey when they were living in Vermont in the hope that it would make her husband less aggressive toward their children, but admitted it had had no effect on him. Regardless of that, she admitted to trying the same thing in Hong Kong, but testified that when she saw the sediment it left at the bottom of the bottle, she poured out the drugged liquor, bought a new bottle and used it to partially fill up the old one, and then 'never thought about it again'.^[3] The Kissel's neighbor, Andrew Tanzer, testified he had become drowsy and then unconscious after sampling the strawberry milkshake. Kissel admitted making it for one of her children and a visiting child, but denied drugging it, stating she would never harm her children or anyone else's.

The Verdict

The case against Nancy Kissel was brought before Justice Michael Lunn. At the end of the trial lasting 65 days, the jury of five men and two women decided on her guilt unanimously after 8 hours of deliberation.^[4]

On 1 September 2005 Nancy Kissel was found guilty by the jury and sentenced to life in prison; her lover Michael Del Priore, was acquitted for lack of evidence.^[5] She appealed her conviction and in April 2008 returned to court,^[6] the appeal was rejected.^[7] Kissel then lodged an appeal with the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong on 12 January 2010.^[8] The case was before five-judge panel led by then-Chief Justice Andrew Li, on 21 January. The defence argued that the prosecution had improperly used evidence, including hearsay, and that the original jury instructions were problematic.^[9] On 11 February 2010, the Court of Final Appeal quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial, citing prosecution use of inadmissible evidence. Kissel was permitted to seek bail,^[10][11] but ultimately chose not to apply.^[12]

Second indictment

Kissel was re-indicted on a single count of murder on 2 March 2010,^[13] with the retrial due to start on 10 January 2011.^[14]

According to the defence, Robert Kissel told his wife on the night of November 2, 2003 that he was filing for divorce, saying that the decision was final, and that she was unfit to care for her children. Defence also alleged she had long suffered from provocation, physical and sexual abuse long before that night. Nancy Kissel pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility and provocation.^[15] Kissel admitted to having an extra-marital relationship with a TV repairman, and prosecution alleged that she planned to run away with her lover in the United States after her husband's death, and that she stood to inherit her husband's estate worth US$18 million.^[16]

On 25 March 2011, after hearing evidence from over 50 prosecution and defence witnesses^[15] over ten weeks, the jury of seven women and two men unanimously found Kissel guilty as charged. She was sentenced to life imprisonment.^[16][17]

References

1. ^ Watts, Jonathan (9 June 2005). "US banker murder case enthrals Hong Kong". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jun/09/china.usa. Retrieved 5 March 2010. 
2. ^ "Murder Trial Rivets Hong Kong’s Expat Community". The Forward. 19 August 2005. http://www.forward.com/articles/2582. Retrieved 5 March 2010. 
3. ^ "Accused's revelations stun packed courtroom". The Standard. 5 August 2005. http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Metro/GH05Ak02.html. Retrieved 11 February 2011. 
4. ^ Bei Hu and Hanny Wan, Nancy Kissel's Murder Appeal Dismissed in Hong Kong, Bloomberg, 6 October 2008.
5. ^ Watts, Jonathan (2 September 2005). "Life jail for wife in Hong Kong sex and drugs murder". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/sep/02/china.jonathanwatts. Retrieved 5 March 2010. 
6. ^ "'Milkshake murderer' to appeal against verdict". The Sydney Morning Herald. 14 April 2008. http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/milkshake-murderer-to-appeal-against-verdict/2008/04/14/1208025056825.html. Retrieved 5 March 2010. 
7. ^ "'Nancy Kissel loses appeal in 'Milkshake Murder' trial in Hong Kong". New York Daily News. 6 October 2008. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2008/10/06/2008-10-06_adrian_michigan_native_nancy_kissel_lose.html. Retrieved 5 March 2010. 
8. ^ Mao, Debra (12 January 2010). "Slain Merrill Banker's Wife in Last Appeal of Murder Conviction". Bloomberg News. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aQsDteE.BftQ. Retrieved 12 January 2010. 
9. ^ Cheng, Jonathan (22 January 2010). "Final appeal in 'milkshake murder'". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB30001424052748704423204575016861616713000.html. Retrieved 22 January 2010. ^{[dead link]}
10. ^ Cheng, Jonathan (11 February 2010). "Hong Kong Court Orders Retrial of Nancy Kissel Murder Case". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704140104575058092228681452.html. Retrieved 11 February 2010. 
11. ^ "'Milkshake killer' Nancy Kissel wins Hong Kong appeal". The BBC. 11 February 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8509768.stm. Retrieved 5 March 2010. 
12. ^ Min Lee (3 September 2010). "American expat jailed for 'milkshake murder' to ask judge to stop retrial, dismiss case". Associated Press. 
13. ^ Nancy Ann Kissel v. HKSAR FACC 2/2009 (11 February 2010)
14. ^ HCCC 55/2010
15. ^ ^{a b} Man, Joyce (Mar 25, 2011). "Jurors consider manslaughter or murder in retrial of Nancy Kissel", South China Morning Post
16. ^ ^{a b} Agence France-Presse (25 March 2011). "Hong Kong convicts American Kissel of murder", Channel News Asia
17. ^ James Pomfret (25 March 2011). American woman found guilty in HK "milkshake murder" retrial, Reuters

External links

• The Standard : Complete coverage of the Kissel murder trial
• Blood And Money: '48 Hours' Looks At The Killing Of Two Brothers Thousands Of Miles Apart
• Understanding Nancy Kissel and Why She Killed Her Husband by Kim Cantrell at True Crime Book Reviews
• Never Enough by Joe McGinnis