Defendant was pretty surprised and stunned and asked her what she knew. The two-hour special describes Bierenbaum, a multilinguistic surgeon, skier, chef and pilot, as a Jekyl and Hyde figure. Katz and Bierenbaum met in the early 1980s in Manhattan and had what initially seemed to be a magical romance, Katzs sister, Alayne Katz, told ABC News. An accomplished pilot, he took her body onto a four-passenger Cessna 172 Nighthawk and, as the plane flew over the Atlantic, tossed it out the aircraft door. Later the same day, around 6:30 P.M., defendant arrived alone at his sister's Montclair, New Jersey, home for his nephew's birthday party. Dalsass that he and his wife had argued that Sunday morning. A seemingly distraught defendant also told Baranoff about the argument, adding that his wife had not yet returned after having left their apartment wearing shorts, a halter top and sandals. Notwithstanding these and other direct, uncomplicated admonitions, defendant omitted telling Det. On the facts here, it is reasonable to assign a moderate degree of probative force to the false statements [emphasis added]. But, as the law requires us to look at the body of proof as a whole, we are convinced it paints a clear picture of a defendant's guilt, and that the jury's verdict is both supported by legally sufficient evidence and entirely consistent with its weight. In our role of reviewing the sufficiency of trial evidence as an appellate court in a purely circumstantial evidence case, we must decide whether a guilty verdict is based on legally sufficient evidence by determin [ing] whether any valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences could lead a rational person to the conclusion reached by the fact finder on the basis of the evidence at trial, viewed in the light most favorable to the People [citations omitted] (People v. Williams, 84 N.Y.2d 925, 926, 620 N.Y.S.2d 811, 644 N.E.2d 1367). Family and friends reported, however, that Katz wanted to divorce her husband. We disagree. In late July or early August, defendant asked her out, and they became intimate on their first date. A jury convicted Robert Bierenbaum of second-degree murder based on circumstantial evidence that on July 7, 1985 he intentionally killed his wife, Gail Katz Jake Massey. Third, he argues that the trial justice should have precluded, and that the prosecutor inappropriately used, evidence that defendant choked his wife rendering her unconscious in the autumn of 1983, including evidence of her statements to her cousin over the phone, which the court admitted as excited utterances.. At his sentencing, Alayne Katz told the court Bierenbaum killed her sister to prevent her from exposing him as a violent and twisted man, according to the Times. People v. Benzinger, 36 N.Y.2d 29, 33-34, 364 N.Y.S.2d 855, 324 N.E.2d 334. Mar 15, 1999. All of Bierenbaums appeals over the years were unsuccessful. Therefore, even though the victim's phone conversation with Wiese was erroneously admitted as excited utterances, its core content was nonetheless relevant, admissible, and the jury properly heard about it from other witnesses. Furthermore, he did not turn over the victim's telephone/ address book until more than two weeks after her disappearance; 7. Kieran Crowley. Applying these principles to the evidence in this purely circumstantial murder case, our review convinces us that, notwithstanding the facial attractiveness of some of the factual arguments defendant's appellate counsel presents, this guilty verdict, based on the proof this jury heard and saw, is the only fair and reasonable outcome (see People v. Sanchez, 61 N.Y.2d 1022, 1024, 475 N.Y.S.2d 376, 463 N.E.2d 1228). The Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) strongly emphasizes the importance of inclusion and representation by recognizing the unique challenges that non-binary and transgender incarcerated people face Gov. Ive waited a very,very long time for this day. It was therefore highly relevant to the question of defendant's motive that the jury be allowed to know and consider the consequences the victim intended by threatening defendant with such a disclosure to his superiors and peers, a disclosure which would likely compromise severely his professional status, his personal reputation and standing, and his economic future. The email address cannot be subscribed. Relevant factors include spontaneity, repetition, the mental state of the declarant, absence of motive to fabricate, *** unlikelihood of faulty recollection and the degree to which the statement was against the declarant's *** interest (see People v. James, 93 N.Y.2d 620, 642, 695 N.Y.S.2d 715, 717 N.E.2d 1052 [citing Idaho v. Wright, 497 U.S. 805, 821, 110 S.Ct. In that 1858 case, the Court of Appeals held, without direct proof of the death, or of the violence or other act of the defendant which is alleged to have produced death, a murder conviction may not stand (id. Investigators took steps for a jury to witness exactly how they believe Bierenbaum dumped his wifes body during his 2000 murder trial, according to the New York Post. Learn more about FindLaws newsletters, including our terms of use and privacy policy. Defendant's so called objection contains none of these ingredients. At the time the deceased disappeared, defendant was a surgical resident at Maimonides Hospital and a licensed pilot. That defendant was the last person who saw her, and who was known to have been alone with her until 11:00 A.M. that day, cannot be persuasively disputed on the basis of this record. @JohnQABCs all-new 20/20 premieres Friday at 9/8c on @ABC. The victim, whom Wiese occasionally saw at family gatherings, telephoned him at his office one afternoon in the fall of 1983. Contemporaneously with these expressions of despair and bewilderment, he promptly had sexual relations on his first date with a nurse in the very room he and his victim had rented for the 1985 summer in the Hamptons, less than a month after she vanished. One can reasonably infer that he knew she would not suddenly return and appear at his bedside. Bierenbaum, an experienced pilot who had been convicted on circumstantial evidence, was serving his 20 years-to-life prison sentence when he made the chilling confession during a December 2020 parole board hearing. First, the court correctly ruled that defendant's objection in the form of a mistrial motion, after summations were completely over, was belated (see People v. Allende, 269 A.D.2d 211, 704 N.Y.S.2d 206, lv. The defense argues that these rulings were improper because: 1) there was no evidentiary foundation to justify the opinion evidence and the scenario depicted in the video demonstration, i.e., that they were purportedly based on speculation; and because 2) these forms of evidence are extremely potent, inflammatory, and therefore they unduly prejudiced defendant in a case like this where, according to him, there is no proof to support the opinions or the scenario shown on tape. They accomplished that task by filming a recreation of how it could be done, the Times reported. Defendant gave contradictory accounts about whether and why he sent the living room rug out to be cleaned immediately following the decedent's disappearance, but completely withheld that information from the police; 4. In fact, defendant even misstated to Det. Once over the ocean, Rowley slowed the plane, took both hands off the controls, opened the passenger door and easily shoved the duffel bag out, the article said. And if shes not alive, theres only one person who is a likely suspect to murder her, and its Bob. One of the prosecution's key assertions was that defendant was motivated to kill his wife because she threatened to destroy him by exposing the letter's contents should he fail to meet her divorce demands. Defendant offered that Gail had, years earlier, attempted suicide. NR | 10.22.21 | 01:19:49 | CC more episodes 01:20:43 Bierenbaum was found guilty of second-degree murder in October 2000. When he exhibited hesitation in responding to her, she jokingly asked him if he had killed his wife. However, he again omitted to mention that he had rented and flown an airplane for almost two hours that same afternoon, a consistent omission whenever he told others about the events of July 7. From there, he telephoned his apartment more than once. Apart from the fact that defendant's alternate theories of his victim's demise have no evidentiary support, the existing evidence itself also refutes them. To begin with, Wiese was unable to reliably estimate how long before his cousin called him that the choking incident occurred. Dr. Robert Bierenbaum, a trained pilot serving 20 years to life in prison, admitted to the crime at a parole hearing for the first time since his wife, Gail Katz, 29, Miller, supra, 291 N.Y. 55, 62, 50 N.E.2d 542 [other citations omitted]), that this jury failed to give the evidence the weight it should be accorded (People v. Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d 490, 495, 515 N.Y.S.2d 761, 508 N.E.2d 672). A few weeks after his wife disappeared, defendant began dating a nurse whom he knew from Maimonides Hospital where they were employed. Instead, he consistently told the police and others that he remained in the marital apartment from the time the victim had left at 11:00 A.M., until 5:30 P.M., then going directly to his nephew's birthday party at his sister's New Jersey home; 6. denied 90 N.Y.2d 1009, 666 N.Y.S.2d 104, 688 N.E.2d 1387; People v Bonilla, supra; People v LaFrance, supra). These facts establish beyond any question that this marriage existed in a volatile, highly emotional, turbulent and dysfunctional environment. When she asked what had happened, he told her his wife may have committed suicide or may have met with foul play, as she had dated a variety of men. His claim of innocence-and the presumption which accompanies it-have been utterly overwhelmed and destroyed by the People's proof. The court must assess not only the nature of the startling event and the amount of time which has elapsed between the occurrence and the statement, but also the activities of the declarant in the interim (People v. Edwards, 47 N.Y.2d 493, 497, 419 N.Y.S.2d 45, 392 N.E.2d 1229). In December 1999, prosecutors charged Bierenbaum based on the circumstantial evidence. Furthermore, although defendant told friends he searched for the deceased in Central Park on July 7 between 11:00 A.M. and 5:30 P.M. and found her towel and suntan oil in the park, he never shared that highly significant detail with O'Malley or Dalsass on the two interviews each had held with him during the seven days following July 7. Further, he told Dalsass, in some detail, that on Saturday afternoon, July 6, while he and Gail shopped at various local stores, they argued about finances and other matters which he refused to disclose. Moreover, the testimony of the only defense witness, Joel Davis, suggesting that he saw the deceased on the afternoon of July 7, was extremely weak. We reject the notion that in a case where an alleged homicide is the second alleged violent act against a spouse-instead of, for example, the third, fourth or ninth-the case may not be treated as a domestic violence homicide for purposes of evidentiary rulings. at 184). SEATTLE - Robert Parker, spared the death penalty last week, was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Defendant next argues that the claimed relevancy of the Tarasoff letter does not justify its introduction because its prejudicial effect outweighs its probative value. He thus argues that her ruling necessarily extends to preclude the People from also proving the existence and nature of the Tarasoff letter. However, the proof here evinces defendant's intent to focus his aggression on one person, namely, his wife-his victim. Dalsass that he and his wife had no argument on July 7, but he told Det. Defendant also disputes the instructions' adequacy, and, beyond that-in addition to urging this Court to reject the notion of a background exception to the hearsay rule-he further argues that the testimony recounting the victim's out-of-court statements was largely unreliable. Gail Katz is pictured in a family photo. The magic didnt last long. Defendant contends: 1) that the trial justice improperly allowed the People to adduce opinion testimony that he was able, as a trained surgical resident, to dismember the victim's body within ten minutes, and also capable of packing it into a flight bag, whether or not the body had been disarticulated; and 2) that the court improperly permitted the jury to watch a videotaped demonstration depicting how a pilot can, without any assistance, load a 110 pound body, so packaged, onto a Cessna 172 airplane, fly it over the ocean, and discard it overboard. They argue that when certain established facts are juxtaposed with other proven circumstances, defendant's multiple contradictions and omissions are patently incriminating. In fact, the doorman did not speak to defendant July 7 and could not recall seeing either defendant or the deceased that day. Furthermore, when they are read together with the court's cautionary charges wherein the trial justice repeated and emphasized the limited value of this and other related evidence, we firmly believe the record belies his contention that he was denied a fair trial. Psychiatrist's Warning Letter and Other Hearsay. Second, he admitted that their marriage was unhappy and virtually over, and that his own anger had reached a level tempting him toward violence against her because he was so frustrated by the strife between them. In addition, they sufficiently related to the circumstantial evidence the People offered, thus enabling the jury to understand medical and surgical matters beyond their ken and better evaluate the prosecution's theory (People v. Lee, 96 N.Y.2d 157, 726 N.Y.S.2d 361, 750 N.E.2d 63). NEW YORK Dr. Robert Bierenbaum maintained his innocence in 2000 as he was tried and convicted of killing his first wife 15 years before. This conclusion is effortlessly drawn not nearly so much because he began dating so soon, but much more because of his obvious and expressed confidence his wife would never return. He then drove her body to an airstrip in Caldwell, N.J., and dumped it into the Atlantic Ocean from a single-engine private plane. Furthermore, he said to at least two people, not including the police, that he had searched for his inexplicably missing wife in Central Park on the afternoon of July 7 and there allegedly found the suntan oil and towel she had taken with her when she left the apartment at 11:00 A.M. He is incapable of a shred of remorse.. However, because we find it harmless, we affirm. She said that he, not for the first time, had choked her, although this was the first time she was thereby rendered unconscious. Defendant and Dr. Feis spoke daily that first week, but during the first few calls she urged him to contact the police and to speak to the doorman. He can hardly claim with any credibility that an interlude of that nature and length slipped his mind when he spoke to the police and others on the first day, or, indeed, at least four times during the first week, following his wife's unexplained disappearance. In other words, they may be admitted only if the acts help establish some element of the crime under consideration (People v. Lewis, 69 N.Y.2d 321, 325, 514 N.Y.S.2d 205, 506 N.E.2d 915). We also conclude that even if a different finding were somehow deemed reasonable, there can be no rational view after weigh[ing] the relative probative force of conflicting testimony and the relative strength of conflicting inferences that may be drawn from the testimony,'(People v. MacCracken ex rel. The couples stormy marriage continued as Katz worked toward her doctorate in clinical psychology at Long Island University. Robert Bierenbaum was sentenced to 20 years to life and is currently incarcerated at New Yorks Attica Correctional Facility. Accordingly, this claim is unpreserved and we decline to review it in the interest of justice (CPL 470.05[2]; People v. Luperon, 85 N.Y.2d 71, 623 N.Y.S.2d 735, 647 N.E.2d 1243). But, when one attentively reviews and critically assesses all the circumstantial evidence, cast in its aggregated and interwoven symmetry, and after applying all natural and reasonable inferences, the conclusion that defendant murdered his wife on July 7, 1985 becomes inescapable, and the evidence excludes beyond a reasonable doubt any reasonable hypothesis of innocence. This entire case leaves no doubt whatever that the contents of the videotape depict a scenario that was anything but speculation. That the victim had once before confronted him with the same letter and her same threat weeks or months before July 7 does not, as defendant now urges, diminish the potential explosiveness of her intended confrontation on the weekend she died, because the testimony is otherwise clear and certain that she once again intended to tell defendant over that weekend that she was divorcing him. That the victim died July 7, 1985 is conceded. Ron DeSantis is making an announcement in Titusville, After Disney sues DeSantis, Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board to sue back, Boy, 14, dies after being shot over the weekend at Dezerland Park on I-Drive in Orlando. Most important, if there existed any lingering ambiguity about whether defense counsel had or had not registered a cognizable objection on October 11, defense counsel himself resolved it on October 16 when he said no objection at the moment the People actually offered the exhibits. Bierenbaum confessed to killing his wife during a parole hearing in December 2020, saying they were fighting and he wanted her to stop yelling, according to the New York Daily News. Dalsass he would respond to his request to view the apartment, defendant in fact did not contact Dalsass until September 12, 1985, and he did not permit entry until September 30. Indeed, this prosecution contention-i.e., that it helped expose defendant's motives-was a valid one, as it is at the heart of the People's case. Within days, investigators were also skeptical of Bierenbaums story, according to the Times. Her stated intentions, should defendant refuse to accede to those demands, were plain. Defendant himself said his wife told him she wanted a divorce. 2. WebRobert Bierenbaum, who is serving a life sentence for a 1985 murder, revealed details of the crime during a parole hearing in December 2020, according to an ABC News transcript newly obtained. Defendant contends that the court improperly allowed the prosecution to adduce testimony, and otherwise refer to evidence, that defendant was violent, and that he choked his wife to the point of unconsciousness in late 1983. Surely, one can argue as defendant does that any single aggressive act or threat, or a series of them, can suggest to a jury a general propensity to behave aggressively. Furthermore, were we to reach the merits of the videotape's admissibility, we would reject the defense argument that its contents are based on pure speculation and thus were improperly placed before the jury. However, Dr. Baran unequivocally denied she had ever said anything like that to defendant or that she ever discussed anything with him on that subject. Prosecutors who convicted Bierenbaum were stunned by his admission to the parole board, particularly because the confession mirrored the states theory of the crime in 1999, when Bierenbaum was charged with second-degree murder. Almost a He saw three different doctors. They were both 29 at the time of her killing, and he told the parole board he was immature and did not know how to contain his anger, the Daily News reported. Defendant misstated that the doorman told him he saw the victim on the afternoon of July 7, when in fact the doorman made it clear he saw her last on July 6 and he could not remember whether he saw either the victim or defendant at all on July 7; 2. Defendant essentially admitted as much, and was heard to say, more than once, that during one argument there was physical contact, that their last argument was explosive and severe, and that he was frustrated in his marriage because they argued constantly. To reject any notion that the victim intended to use the letter a second time simply because she may have already used it once before would unreasonably ignore her various statements, her reasons for wanting a divorce, and her state of mind as that fateful weekend approached. However, this faint expression, on its face, is nothing more than a prediction that defendant might-or probably will in futuro-object to the video. That anything said, however insignificant it could possibly be used to find her and locate her , I told the defendant that he should give me a narration of the time he spent over the last weekend. Robert Bierenbaum first made headlines for the murder of his wife Gail Katz. We disagree. He also failed to mention to both Det. Should we answer that inquiry in the affirmative, we next must weigh the relative probative force of conflicting testimony and the relative strength of conflicting inferences that may be drawn from the testimony (People ex rel. Defendant also relies on the trial justice's rejection of the People's request to call defendant's three treating doctors to testify at trial. His medical license was revoked He hasnt changed. Powered by. In 2000, former plastic surgeon Robert Bierenbaum was convicted of the 1985 murder of his wife Gail Katz. He also said that he hated the victim so much, and that she would get him so upset, that he wanted to kill her. Accordingly, there can be no holding that this verdict is against the weight of the evidence. He also once choked Gail into unconsciousness after finding her smoking on their balcony. WebThe Washington State Department of Corrections manages all state-operated adult prisons and supervises adult inmates who live in the community. That evening, he went to the home of his friend, Dr. Scott Baranoff. Thus, under Ruloff v. People, 18 N.Y. 179, those two facts once precluded a murder prosecution in New York. However, the trial justice specifically stated her ruling did not apply to preclude the letter's existence and nature. Furthermore, on July 14, while with his wife's friend Maryann DeCesare and a group of friends who were searching for her and posting missing person signs in Central Park and elsewhere, defendant quipped that he thought his wife-who was missing for a full week-was on a shopping spree at Bloomingdale's, adding, You know what a JAP1 she was. When the search party returned to the marital apartment-only seven days after his wife's disappearance-defendant volunteered to his mother-in-law, in DeCesare's presence, I wonder why the cat got sick. On July 8, 1985, Bierenbaum called the police and reported his wife missing. I wanted her to stop yelling at me and I attacked her, Bierenbaum said, according to a hearing transcript obtained by the network. The trial record also makes it clear-notwithstanding the victim occasionally vacillated about terminating her marriage-this couple was on the verge of divorce in July 1985. I went flying. Finally, she observed that defendant was meticulous, even compulsive, about making flight log entries. Those opinions, contrary to defendant's argument, did not endanger the jury's objectivity, as the record in no way suggests that they were delivered in anything other than a dispassionate and brief manner. However, in the July 8 interview, he had specifically denied that the reason she left the apartment at 11:00 A.M. to sunbathe in Central Park was related to an argument that morning. Robert Bierenbaum admitted to killing wife Gail Katz and throwing her body out of an airplane during a December 2020 parole board hearing, according to a new At 9:00 P.M. the next night (July 8), he finally spoke to Detective Vergilio Dalsass, telling him that his wife left their apartment at 11:00 A.M. on July 7 to sunbathe in Central Park wearing pink shorts and a white t-shirt. Consequently, it is not improbable that her call followed at least some degree of reasoned reflection. However, in 1982, in People v. Lipsky, 57 N.Y.2d 560, 457 N.Y.S.2d 451, 443 N.E.2d 925, the Court of Appeals overruled Ruloff. There is little or nothing by way of circumstantial evidence that is more relevant or more probative in a circumstantial murder case-especially one involving domestic violence-than the type of evidence at issue on this appeal. They both complained many times to many people that their marriage was loveless and their life together was stormy. Gail Katz once called her sister, weeping, and said that her husband tried drowning her cat in a toilet at their Upper East Side apartment, Alayne Katz said. Beyond that, the proof also clearly shows how he went about it, that she did not kill herself, nor that any boyfriend or drug dealer killed her. Copyright 2023, Thomson Reuters. Moreover, his behavior with other women so soon after July 7 is inconsistent with behavior one would reasonably anticipate from a husband whose wife had mysteriously disappeared, notwithstanding that their marriage was stormy. Thus, it is impossible for a court to conclude safely that her motivation was untouched by economic self-interest or unencumbered by concerns about legal strategy. He is now eligible for parole and faces a parole hearing in November 2021. A trial court must not merely count the number of past incidents, but it must engage in a qualitative assessment of the words and deeds which create the history of the relationship between defendant and alleged victim. The December parole hearing at which he admitted his guilt was unsuccessful. He therefore contends it was inadmissible under Nucci v. Proper, 95 N.Y.2d 597, 721 N.Y.S.2d 593, 744 N.E.2d 128 even if it were deemed otherwise allowable. According to the Times, she had talked Bierenbaum into seeking psychiatric help for his violent streak. GRAND FORKS -- The story of Dr. Robert Bierenbaum, a plastic surgeon who practiced in Grand Forks and Minot and later was convicted for the murder of his wife in their Manhattan apartment, will air in a two-hour, special 20/20 program beginning at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22, on ABC. Former NY surgeon admits killing wife, throwing body from airplane in 1985 (NCD). Defendant later retracted that claim. This aspect of the evidence, when viewed with all else the People proved, compels inferences that defendant had an informed reason, based on his own direct knowledge, to be completely unconcerned that: a) his paramour might shortly be forced to confront his missing wife in her own bedroom; and b) his early morning trip to the precinct would reunite him with her. One of the biggest challenges, the former prosecutor said, was to convince a jury that Bierenbaum could fly a plane and push Katzs body from the aircraft at the same time. More than 30 years later, Robert Bierenbaum confesses to her murder. 3.86. 1. In fact, several witnesses, including Dr. Baran, described victim's state of mind during the period before July 7 as being happy, jovial and the like. ABC News reports Robert Bierenbaum made the confession during a parole board hearing in December 2020, about 36 years after his wife, Gail Katz, went missing in New York City. Because of client confidentiality, the doctors could not testify in court. 14, 551 P.2d 334), to the victim. We recognize that as a general proposition false statements are a relevant but weak form of evidence. Neither her body nor her remains has ever been found. ABC News reports that Robert Bierenbaum, who is serving 20 years-to-life in prison for murdering his wife Gail Katz, confessed to the crime during a Dec. 2020 parole Bierenbaum, now 66, convicted of the murder in 2000 under circumstantial evidence, had continually denied any involvement in her death, told parole that he killed his wife Gail To the contrary, it was her professional opinion, based on three years of treating the deceased once or twice weekly, that she was not suicidal. Moreover, the ruling was correct also because of the Tarasoff exception to the CPLR 4504(a) privilege. At one point while they lived together, on a day that Dr. Karnofsky was angry or annoyed with defendant, and, having heard a number of accusatory answering machine messages directed at defendant, she confronted him to see what his reaction [would be]: What I said to him was, well, I think that if you did this and if it really happened as some people seem to think it did, that perhaps something happened in the apartment and you intentionally or unintentionally-Gail was hurt, you could have put her in one of those big flight bags or duffel bags and carried her out of the apartment since she was very small, put her in the back of your car, drive out to the airport and thrown her body out of the plane.
robert bierenbaum parole 2020