Defendant recounted crime to psychiatrist while in jail
By Raymond Drumsta
rdrumsta@gannett.com
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following story contains descriptions that may be too graphic for some readers.
The idea to slash his wife Caroline Coffey's throat "crystallized" in his mind around midnight the last day of May 2009 -- as he lay awake next to her in bed, Blazej J. Kot told a defense psychiatrist in a taped interview.
"It seemed to be the easiest and quickest way to kill her," Kot said in the interview, which was shown to jurors during his murder trial in Tompkins County Court Monday. "I didn't want to cause her pain." Less than two days later, on their evening run on the Black Diamond Trail, he picked up a discarded metal pipe he'd seen earlier, hit Coffey in the back of the head, and -- while she was on the ground, resisting and shouting for him to stop -- took a box cutter from his pocket and killed her, Kot told psychiatrist Dr. Rory Houghtalen.
The interview with Kot took place in Tompkins County Jail on July 19, Houghtalen testified. Kot, a former Cornell University Ph.D. student, is accused of murdering Coffey on June 2 and setting fire to their Town of Ithaca apartment to hide the crime. His attorney Joe Joch, however, has asserted Kot killed Coffey because he was suffering from an extreme emotional disturbance, a defense under state law that lessens murder to manslaughter.
Kot's mental state was worsened by the rejection of his research paper and the anti-malarial chloroquine tablets he took before, during and after he and Coffey traveled to Costa Rica for their May marriage ceremony, Joch argued, and Kot thought he could end the unseen forces' testing of him by causing Coffey's death. Joch and Houghtalen have also said Kot may have been suffering from Capgras syndrome or Capgras delusion -- the notion that people he knew, including Coffey, had been replaced by strangers.
He interviewed Kot for a total of about 16 hours four times over the past year, and determined that Kot has a schizotypal personality disorder, a mental condition marked by odd or magical beliefs, unusual perceptual experiences, suspicion and paranoia, a lack of close friends and excessive social anxiety, Houghtalen testified Friday. On Monday, he told the jury that this disorder was the starting point for the problems Kot suffered, including major depressive disorder, delusions and psychosis.
In interviews shown to the jury Friday and Monday, Kot said his long-held feelings of detachment, that the world seemed unreal, and that he was being watched, chosen and tested for a special purpose -- perhaps a secret agent -- intensified after their May wedding.
The test involved finishing his Ph.D. while never revealing to others that he knew about the testing, Kot said under Houghtalen's questioning. Though the wedding was a good time, jokes and remarks by his family, friends and colleagues -- about his immigration status, relationship to Coffey, return from Costa Rica, and studies -- seemed to be part of the test, he added. He felt pressure about his relationship with Coffey and had second thoughts after the wedding, wondering if they should've waited longer, Kot said.
As June approached, he felt worthless, suffocated and trapped by the circumstances of his life, he told Houghtalen. Though sometimes suffering from low energy, he drank because he was anxious and took antihistamines to help him sleep at night. His suspicions, while stupid or ridiculous in retrospect, seemed real at the time, he added.
"At some point, I started thinking about Caroline's death," Kot said, adding that he believed it was a way out of the trap. "'My life sucks; wouldn't it be great if something tragic happens to Caroline?'" he recalled thinking. "It seemed it would provide me a reason or excuse to stop this Ph.D. (program) and change my life."
Initially believing a car accident might kill Caroline, he later thought "'maybe I can do it myself,'" Kot said. That Sunday night in bed, the plan to kill Coffey with the box cutter while they were jogging on the trail "fell into place," he added.
"It just seemed so powerful," Kot said. "It seemed like it was just going to happen." Kot told him that he'd seen the pipe on other runs, and felt it was an omen, given what he planned to do, Houghtalen testified. "I thought I'd just grab her and cut her," Kot said in the interview, adding that while someone might get blamed, he didn't care either way.
The plan kept creeping into his mind the following Monday and Tuesday, and he felt nervous, Kot said. "I didn't know what I was going to do after I killed her," he said. On Tuesday evening they ate, worked on their wedding photos and then went running on the trail, he said.
"I couldn't believe what I was about to do," Kot said, adding that another part of him was saying to do it, that he wasn't worthy and that "this is the way out."
"'Blazej, what are you doing!'" Kot remembered Coffey yelling after he struck her. Kot said he felt detached during the attack, as if he watching himself commit it, saying "I swear it isn't me!" during the attack. He "went into overdrive" as Coffey fought back, and that he finally cut her throat, Kot said.
The interview was projected on the courtroom screen, and most of Coffey's family, warned by Assistant District Attorney Andrew McElwee, left for Kot's description of the crime. The few remaining spectators, including Kot's parents, sat rapt and watched the screen as Kot showed Houghtalen -- with a quick flick of his wrist -- how he inflicted the fatal wound with the box cutter.
Seated at the defense table, Kot watched himself on the screen. Emotionless as he spoke about Caroline during the interview, Kot sometimes fidgeted as he recalled killing her, massaging his forehead with one hand and occasionally glancing furtively at the camera taping his remarks.
"The thing I remembered most was the warmth of the blood," Kot recalled. "It really freaked me out." He tossed the pipe away, ran back to their apartment and for some reason, tried to burn his clothes, he said. Tossing his clothes into the fireplace, he ignited them with paint thinner and went to the bathroom to wash his hands, he added.
There he beheld his own bloody face in the mirror, Kot said.
"That's when I really freaked out and said, 'I have to kill myself. This ends tonight,'" he said.
Houghtalen is scheduled to continuing testifying and showing his interviews with Kot today.
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