July 7, 2010 4:15pm
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A former Rick's Cabaret stripper testified Wednesday that an alleged murderer and his date got lap dances from her hours before the victim was strangled to death in a Chinatown apartment.
The stripper — Beisheeva Batkygul — said she spent the duration of five songs dancing for 24-year-old Lorna Santiago, who was found dead and decomposing on the bed of Michael Lenahan, 32, three days after their date at Rick's on Oct. 7, 2007.
Prosecutors said he strangled her and watched sadomasochist porn on the web with her lifeless body feet away. He is on trial in Manhattan Supreme Court and facing 25 years to life in prison.
On the witness stand, Batkygul said she did not notice particularly unusual behavior from the couple, who asked for five $20 dances.
Santiago seemed to enjoy the stripper's company and at one point grabbed the breast of the exotic dancer, which is against the rules, Batkygul said.
"She asked about my perfume and she tried to smell me," the exotic dancer testified.
"When I turned around she just grabbed me my breast," the dancer added.
After Lenahan paid Baktygul $110, she said she did not see them again.
Lenahan's mother, who found Santiago's body, began her testimony Wednesday afternoon and will return on Thursday.
The mother, Dorcas Ching, described how her family had been trying to help her son deal with a cocaine problem. They'd hoped to send him to rehab in California around the time of Santiago's death.
She said Lenahan confessed to her that he had "hurt" a woman in a fight and claimed he took her to St. Vincent's hospital for treatment.
"They went out to have a good time and she owed him money," she said her son told her.
Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20100707/manhattan/former-ricks-cabaret-stripper-testifies-chinatown-murder-trial#ixzz0t5kcEv1u
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