NEW YORK (AP) — After five years of stalls and starts, a murder case against a mental patient charged with the meat-cleaver killing of a Manhattan psychotherapist is set to go to trial.
Jury selection is due to start Monday in David Tarloff's case. It's been on hold for years at a time because of his mental state. He's schizophrenic.
Tarloff's lawyers don't dispute that he killed Kathryn Faughey (FAW'-hee) in 2008. But they argue he was so psychotic he shouldn't be held criminally responsible for her death.
Prosecutors and Faughey's family say Tarloff carried out a considered, violent scheme.
Tarloff has said he wanted to rob Faughey's office mate. He hoped to get the doctor's ATM code, withdraw $40,000, whisk his mother out of a nursing home and escape with her to Hawaii.
