Lawyer: Mental patient’s statements in NYC therapist attack case show thinking not ‘normal’
By APThursday, April 8, 2010
Remarks OK’d as evidence in NYC therapist killing
NEW YORK — A defense lawyer says a schizophrenic’s videotaped statements to police about the meat-cleaver killing of a New York City therapist could help the mental patient, though they’re intended as evidence against him.
Attorney Bryan Konoski says he won’t contest a judge’s decision Thursday that David Tarloff’s statements can be used at trial.
Konoski says he thinks Tarloff’s sometimes rambling videotaped statement will help his insanity defense by showing he didn’t “have a linear and normal thought process.”
Authorities say Tarloff slashed therapist Kathryn Faughey (FAW’-hee) at least 15 times in a February 2008 attack. Tarloff says in the video he had intended only to rob her office mate.
Prosecutors had no immediate comment on Thursday’s ruling.
