AP • Reuters • New York Times • CBS • MSNBC • USA TODAY • FOX News • Poll • Photos

Wife sentenced to life for HK "milkshake" murder

by John Ruwitch

HONG KONG (Reuters) - American housewife Nancy Kissel was sentenced to life in a Hong Kong prison on Thursday for murdering her banker husband in 2003, ending a trial that riveted the territory with tales of rough sex, marital violence and adultery.

After about eight hours of deliberation, a seven-member jury delivered a unanimous verdict before the court. Asked how the jury found, the foreman simply replied: "Guilty."

The judge then ordered an expressionless Kissel, seated in the dock in the back of the courtroom, to stand and sentenced her to life in prison.

The trial of Nancy Kissel for the murder of her husband Robert, a top banker with Merrill Lynch, has riveted Hong Kong and its large expatriate community since it began in early June.

Nancy, 41, admitted to killing the high-flying banker on November 2, 2003, but pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder.

Prosecutors said she fed Robert, 40, a milkshake spiked with sedatives and smashed his skull repeatedly with a heavy metal ornament after he was incapacitated.

They said Robert had been planning to divorce her and wanted custody of their children after discovering she had an affair with a TV repairman in the United States.

Nancy told the court that she had struck her husband five times on the side of his head after he attempted to force her to have anal sex and hit her repeatedly.

Earlier, she told the court that her husband had often flown into rages fueled by cocaine and alcohol and had abused her physically and sexually for years.

Nancy testified that she could not recall much of what happened in the days after Robert was killed.

Witnesses said she ordered shipping boxes from a moving company, in which police later found blood stained items.

Her maids said she ordered them to buy rope and tape, and Kissel had workers in her apartment complex move a rolled up carpet with Robert's body in it to a store room.

His body was discovered on November 6 after a friend filed a missing person's report.