An American woman accused of drugging her wealthy banker husband with a sedative-laced milkshake before bludgeoning him to death with a metal statue admitted killing him to a Hong Kong court yesterday.
Nancy Ann Kissel, 41, denies murdering Robert Kissel, 40, and dumping his body among old carpets in a store room.
But she stunned Hong Kong's Court of First Instance with her admission that she killed him during a fight as he tried to force her into having sex.
Under cross-examination in the third day of her defense testimony Kissel was asked by prosecutor Peter Chapman if she accepted that she killed her husband in the fight.
"Yes," she answered, to gasps from the public gallery.
Kissel is accused of murdering the senior Merrill Lynch investment banker in November 2003.
His body was discovered when removal men were called to empty the store room at their luxury high-rise apartment in an exclusive housing complex.
The court was earlier told that tests showed her husband's stomach contained a cocktail of sedatives that were also found in remains of a strawberry milkshake Kissel had given her husband on the night of his murder.
A neighbor who also drank some of the drink told the court he'd felt drowsy later that day.
In the ninth week of the trial, Kissel said she had been routinely beaten and forced to have anal or oral sex against her will by a husband who was often high on cocaine or alcohol.
She had told the court that on the night the banker was killed he told her he had filed for divorce after discovering she had been having an affair with a TV repair man.
She said he beat her with a baseball bat after they began quarrelling. She fought back and grabbed the ornament. She said she remembered only hitting him.
Her admission is the latest sensational revelation in a case that has captured the imagination of this city, where murders are few.
The case has captivated the public with its lurid exposure of life inside the normally closed world of the city's wealthy expatriates, a sector of the community often considered by locals as above the law.
Dressed entirely in black, the diminutive Kissel told the court she had been subjected to often violent sexual ordeals since the family had moved to Hong Kong with her husband's job in 1997.
"When we arrived things sexually changed between us," she said. "His personality changed. Moving to Hong Kong put a lot of pressure on our family."
She said he began forcing her into sexual positions that were "not normal" and also he became sexually aggressive.
When asked if her husband used force in the attacks, Kissel replied "yes"; she had suffered broken ribs and bruising, which she explained away to doctors as the results of rugby injuries.
Kissel said she had endured the attacks because she believed it was her husband's way of getting over the stress of his job.
She said her husband had been a habitual cocaine user since before they met on vacation in the Caribbean in the mid-1980s.
He had been expelled from school as a youngster for dealing in drugs, she said, and she regularly gave him money for cocaine during their courtship while he was a student and she worked in restaurants in New York City.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College