The Rejection

In August 1976, the Defendant met the victim, a neighbor in the same apartment complex in Nassau County, New York. They went on a few casual dates. When the victim told the Defendant she was not "falling in love" with him, he became devastated and then obsessed. He undertook a series of deeply disturbing acts: he broke into the apartment below the victim's to eavesdrop on her conversations; he broke into her apartment while she was away, undressed, and lay for a time in her bed. During this second break-in he carried a knife, which he later told Police he brought "because he knew that he was either going to hurt the victim or the victim was going to cause him to commit suicide." On February 28, 1977, the Defendant went to the victim's apartment with several bottles of wine and liquor as a gift and final appeal. The victim rejected the offering. The Defendant produced a steak knife he had brought with him, stabbed her several times in the throat, then dragged her body to the bathroom and submerged her in a bathtub full of water to "make sure she was dead." The following day he voluntarily approached Police at the building, at first denied involvement, but after nine and a half hours of questioning confessed in full. He was indicted on March 8, 1977, for second-degree murder and waived his right to a jury trial.