had been mentally damaged when she killed rob kissel, they could find her guilty of the lesser charge, manslaughter. in that case, the judge could take into account the time she had already served, and in effect let her walk out of the courtroom a free woman. in march, after ten and a half hours of deliberations, the jury returned with its verdict. and the judge says is it unanimous, and they say yes, it s unanimous. and the judge says what is it? for the second time in more than five years, a hong kong jury found nancy kissel guilty of murder. there was a gasp in the courtroom, mainly from family and supporters, and people who may have thought after hearing the evidence that it was going to be manslaughter. and with the same verdict came the same sentence. life in prison for nancy kissel. afterwards, her mother spoke to nbc news.
andrew kissel, lucky to be only spanked by the apartment neighbors he swindled, continued to buy residential and commercial properties all over wealthy connecticut. it was about then worrying news was coming out of asia. the airborne killer sars put the region on high alert, including hong kong where rob and his family lived. there was no question rob had to get nancy and the now three kids out of asia. so he sent them to the kissel family ski house in vermont. it seemed the natural safe haven. rob the dutiful breadwinner elected to stay in hong kong, one of those fateful decisions. rob first approached me in june of 2003. frank shay is a former new york city police detective turned private investigator. during the separation from his family, rob got that funny feeling, one that tells you your spouse is doing something she shouldn t. he wanted the confirmation. he was pretty convinced it was going on, but he wanted the
though, that was a complete blur. he tried to pick a fight by mentioning divorce. he says, supposedly, i m taking the kids, i m going. and he s holding a baseball bat. then eventually through a lot of shouting, she gets dragged into the bedroom. violent fight under way. right. and she goes blank. on cross examination, the prosecutor cut to the chase. mrs. kissel, there s one thing we have to get over and done with. you do, of course, accept you killed your husband? and she said yes. gasps in the courtroom. gasps in the courtroom. in the end, after three months of trial, the jury didn t buy nancy s claims of abuse or her argument of self-defense. its unanimous verdict, guilty. nancy kissel would spend the rest of her life in a chinese prison. rob s friends in new york couldn t spare her much sympathy. the legacy she leaves the children is she murdered their father and said he was a terrible person.
unwilling to put up with a messy divorce. before she killed him, prosecutors said, nancy kissel had trolled the internet researching drugs to poison her husband. right from the start they say it was a cold-blooded killing, simple as that. prosecutors laid out the last hours of rob kissel in grisly detail. they said nancy knew her husband was about to ask for a divorce, so she launched a preemptive strike. she blended a pharmacy of drugs into a pink colored milkshake, gave it to one of her daughters to serve to daddy. this is known as date rape drug. right. is that what we re talking about? knocks you out, can t remember details. exactly. prosecutors said hours after drinking the shake, rob got into his pajamas, staggered toward his bed and collapsed, unconscious. then nancy pounced, a leaden
rob. he was more approachable. different as they were temperament, they shared a gift for math. i remember going to a yankee game with robert. he brought a pad, wrote all the stats down, who has runs batted in. andy the same. both had careers in business. andy first out of the box was a retail car accessory shop. it was a bust. i think he wanted it so bad, but the customers weren t coming in, you know. i think it lasted maybe a year and a half. always the more cautious younger brother, rob set out on a more conventional path to success, college, then business school. i think rob was more studious, understood that it took a great deal of hard work to succeed, and i think andrew was in a rush. college buddy michael paradise says he was struck by rob s methodical approach to everything. studies, sports, dating. attractive, funny, smart, had a great future ahead of him. athletic. you can go down the list and