The Nancy Kissel Case - Part 37

• (Reuters)  HK banker's wife says was raped on night of murder.  August 3, 2005.
• (Associated Press via Pravda)  American housewife killed husband in Hong Kong.  August 3, 2005.
• (The Standard)  'Counseling enraged him, and brought on sex abuse'  By Albert Wong, August 4, 2005.
• (The Standard)  Kissel tells murder trial of bloody fight.  By Albert Wong.  August 4, 2005.
• (SCMP; no link)  Kissel remembers husband hitting her, but then it's all a blank.  By Polly Hui.  August 4, 2005.
• (SCMP; no link)  Son had shake Kissel allegedly drugged.  By Polly Hui.  August 4, 2005.
• (Bloomberg)  Kissel Tells Court She Accepts She Killed Husband.  By Clare Cheung.  August 4, 2005.

From the Chinese-language media:

• (Sing Pao)
  Nancy Kissel testified that when problems emerged in her marriage, she had sought help from a marriage counselor and a psychiatrist.  She wanted to get a divorce but her husband got very angry: "Who you think you are to ask for a divorce?  I'm the one who makes the money.  If there is a divorce, you don't ask for me.  I'll ask for it!"
   
  On the day before October 23, she had another argument with her husband.  He beat her and forced her to have sex.  She felt very sad and asked for help from a pedaetrician.  Because she often couldn't sleep out of worry that her husband would mess with her, she asked the doctor to give her some sleeping pills.
   
  On the morning of the incident (November 2), the whole family went to the Jewish synagogue.  When they got back in the afternoon, she made milk shake for her husband and her children.  After her husband drank the milkshake, he told her that he is filing for divorce and said that she was unfit to take care of the children.  She said that her husband was holding a baseball bat in his hand, saying that he was worrried that she would go crazy and that is why he needed it for self-defense.
   
  The defendant then picked up an ornament and confronted her husband while waving her finger at him.  Her husband grabbed her by both hands, dragged her into the bedrood and wanted to force her to have anal sex.  The defendant resisted and kicked her husband.  Her husband grabbed her legs to prevent her from leaving.  The defendant then grabbed the ornament once more.
   
  The defendant said: "I hit something at the time.  When I turned around, I saw that my husband was bleeding in the head!"
   
  The husband held his bleeding head and cursed her: "You want to kill me!"  The husband picked up the baseball bat and hit her legs, knees and belly.  The defendant used to the ornament to defend herself.  The husband cursed her: "Bitch! You want to kill me!"
   
  When the defendant presented the above testimonry, her hands and body were shaking.  The judge had to order an adjournment of several minutes to allow her to calm now.  But the defendant said that she has no recollection about what happened in the bedroom afterwards and the time of death of her husband.  Pieces of memory came back to her after six months.
   
• (Ming Pao)
  The murder trial of former Merrill Lynch managing director Robert Kissel continued  today.  The defendant Nancy Kissel testified that she thought that she had depression prior to the incident and her memory was also fuzzy around the time of the incident.  She only remembered that on the afternoon of the incident, her husband told her that he had already filed for divorce.  She saw her husband holding a baseball bat, so she picked up a metallic ornament.  They quarreled and then they fought.  But she has no recollection of what happened afterwards.  Two months after the incident, she finally figured out where she was.  Six months afterwards, she finally found out that her husband was dead.
   
  When 41-year-old Nancy Ann Kissel described the fight or looked at the picture of the baseball bat yesterday, she often paused and stayed silence with her hands and head shaking.  She said that about half a month before the day of the incident (November 2), she spoke to a doctor to complain about her husband's unreasonable sexual behavior and beatings.  The doctor believed that she was raped and gave her a forumla for sleeping pills.  Another psychiatrist also gave her sedatives and sleeping pills.
   
  On the morning of the incident, she went to the synagogue and then came home.  Soon, her husband, her children, a male neighbor and his daughter came back as well.  The children wanted ice cream, so she and her daughters made milkshake which everybody drank.  Afterwards, she stayed in the kitchen.  Then her husband asked her to speak in the master bed room.  He said that he has filed for divorce and asked for custody of the children.  Prior to this, the husband had never mentioned divorce.
   
  The defendant got very emotional and they quarreled for a while.  The defendant saw that her husband was holding a baseball bat and he said that he wanted to use the bat for self-defense in case she goes crazy.  So she went into the kitchen and picked up a metallic ornament.  Then she waved her finger in front of her husband's face and then made one gesture.  When the husband saw that gesture, he hit her with his hands and then forced her to have anal sex with him.  The defendant resisted and they struggled.  The defendant saw her husband bleeding in the head and yelling, "I'm going to kill you!"
   
  But the defendant said that she does not remember what happened after the fight.  She remembered driving the car that night, but she did not remember to where.  Six months later while she was at the Siu Lam Kung Psychiatric Centre, pieces of memory and images re-surfaced and she found out that her husband was dead.  The hearing continues today.

<< Part 36     Part 38 >>

For easier navigation, please see the COMPLETE NANCY KISSEL page