Medical Examiner's Testimony and Videotaped Demonstration. Perhaps defendant's most damning omission was his repeated, false claim to the police and to others that he remained in the apartment all afternoon on July 7 and then went directly to his nephew's birthday party in New Jersey. 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. Defendant was pretty surprised and stunned and asked her what she knew. https://t.co/WMwMXq1BzA, Gail Beth, beloved daughter, granddaughter and sister, her headstone says. 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. The network is featuring the case Friday night on 20/20.. Man Admits to Murdering His Wife More Than 30 Years After She Therefore, the trial justice should not have admitted the victim's statements to Hillard Wiese as excited utterances. However, we hold that this error was harmless, because, as we noted earlier, the jury otherwise properly learned that the victim claimed defendant had committed a violent act against her in the fall of 1983, as evidence relevant to the state of their marriage, to defendant's motive, to his intent, and relevant evidence of identity. 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.. He was inconsistent about his purported knowledge of his wife's post-July 7 whereabouts, alluding to different theories and purported sightings to different people. PEOPLE v. BIERENBAUM (2002) | FindLaw 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. The People proved beyond a reasonable doubt that this defendant had the opportunity, the motive, and the intent to kill his victim, and that it was he who did so. ), rendered November 29, 2000, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of murder in the second degree, and sentencing him to a term of 20 years to life should be affirmed. We hold otherwise. The only thing more shocking may be how he tried to hide the body. Bierenbaum has been eligible for parole since October 2020. Defendant called a number of the deceased's friends voicing expressions of concern that she may have harmed herself, specifically attributing that notion to comments made to him by her therapist, Dr. Sybil Baran. Nevertheless, he contradicted himself among various versions and aspects of those statements. Defendant asserts that because there is evidence of only one earlier act of violence by him against his wife, this murder case should not be considered as a domestic violence homicide, and therefore there is no justification for the single alleged choking episode to be received in evidence along with various threats and other evidence of discord. A surgeon who murdered his wife admitted to the killing more than 30 years later. She said that he, not for the first time, had choked her, although this was the first time she was thereby rendered unconscious. 14, 551 P.2d 334). Former NY surgeon admits killing wife, throwing body from airplane in 1985 (NCD). 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. Bierenbaum had been out on $500,000 bail. We disagree. He told several people that, just before his wife left the apartment for the last time, they argued. 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. 831), a physician is required to disclose to the extent necessary to protect a threatened interest. He also gave inconsistent statements about his wifes disappearance to various women he dated after Katz vanished. Moreover, the justice's immediate response-I suspect I'll allow it-is of no greater legal significance. In considering whether this defendant's behavior and statements show evidence of his consciousness of guilt, we find that they unquestionably do. Robert Bierenbaum, who is serving a sentence of 20 years to life in prison, revealed the details of the 1985 murder during a December 2020 parole hearing whose They saw each other socially about five times over the next six weeks, until she abruptly ended their relationship because, in her view, he unjustifiably attacked her verbally one evening in a restaurant. Defendant displayed no reaction, [h]e didn't say anything.. Finally, the court's cautionary instructions to the jury were more than adequate to assure a relevant and fair consideration of this evidence and avoid prejudicial impact. denied 97 N.Y.2d 756, 742 N.Y.S.2d 616, 769 N.E.2d 362 [prior threats of violence and acts admissible]; People v. Lee, 284 A.D.2d 412, 726 N.Y.S.2d 284, lv. 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. WebDr Robert Bierenbaum is sentenced in New York City to twenty years to life in prison for murdering his wife, Gail Katz-Bierenbaum, who disappeared 15 years ago; Judge Leslie He stated he had remained behind in their apartment until 5:30 P.M. before leaving for his sister's New Jersey home. The proof more than adequately supports the jury's determinations. https://t.co/ZGewROXCaQ pic.twitter.com/qwTytMjU2s. Bierenbaum, now 66, convicted of the murder in 2000 under circumstantial evidence, had continually denied any involvement in her death, told a parole hearing in During the first police interview of defendant on July 8 at 9:00 P.M., lasting 45 minutes, Det. 286 and its progeny. Exposing these transgressions, if it did not disgrace him, would most certainly compromise his professional standing, damage his personal reputation, and injure his short- and long-term career plans and income potential. 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. This abundant array of damning circumstantial evidence proves beyond any reasonable doubt that defendant intentionally killed this victim, that he did it on the date, at the time and for the reason the People offered; and that he disposed of her body as the People contend. As a cameraman in a helicopter filmed the recreation, a New York City police officer shoved a duffel bag filled with 110 pounds of rice and sand from a Cessna 172 three times, unassisted, the newspaper said. The couples stormy marriage continued as Katz worked toward her doctorate in clinical psychology at Long Island University. Courts have also considered the status or relationship to the declarant of the person to whom the statement was made *** whether there was a coercive atmosphere, whether it was made in response to questioning and whether the statements reflect an attempt to shift blame or curry favor (James, supra, 93 N.Y.2d at 642-643, 695 N.Y.S.2d 715, 717 N.E.2d 1052 [citing United U.S. v. Matthews, 20 F.3d 538, 546; other citations omitted]). ABC's '20/20' to explore case of ex-Grand Forks surgeon who We recognize that as a general proposition false statements are a relevant but weak form of evidence. Defendant's so called objection contains none of these ingredients. Indeed, defendant himself told his father in 1983 that their strife had reached the point of some physical contact, and there is credible testimony that in 1985 defendant was so filled with hostility that he was tempted toward violence against his wife. A few weeks after his wife disappeared, defendant began dating a nurse whom he knew from Maimonides Hospital where they were employed. As for now, Robert was sent back to prison. We disagree. Psychiatrist's Warning Letter and Other Hearsay. While no one other than the victim and defendant was present to observe what transpired in the marital dwelling on the morning of July 7, the inference from the foregoing circumstantial facts is most compelling, if not irresistible, that they had a hostile confrontation that weekend about the future of their marriage, its serious problems, and how each would deal with them. Contact us. For the entire week immediately following the victim's disappearance, defendant failed to return Det. During the trial, the jury saw a video of an NYPD pilot loading two 50-pound bags of sand and a 10-pound bag of rice into a black duffel bag, meant to serve as a simulation for the 110-body of Katz Bierenbaum. Second, defendant complains that the trial court erroneously allowed the jury to learn a) of the existence and nature of a letter written to his wife by his psychiatrist warning her of the danger defendant posed to her; and b) of several of her verbal statements to various people describing defendant's threatening remarks and otherwise negative behavior. Her body was never found and the great weight of the evidence shows that she was anything but desperate or depressed so that one might reasonably fear she was contemplating suicide. Defendant falsely attributed to Dr. Baran the opinion that the victim was depressed and might have committed suicide. @JohnQABCs all-new 20/20 premieres Friday at 9/8c on @ABC. 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. Finally, the victim chose to call an attorney, rather than a lay person, one with whom she did not have an especially close, personal and confidential relationship. 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. His flight path took him over the ocean. 4. 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). After all, he made several statements making it appear he had no idea how his wife disappeared, where she was, and when or whether she would ever return. WebNEW YORK Dr. Robert Bierenbaum maintained his innocence in 2000 as he was tried and convicted of killing his first wife 15 years before. That evening, he went to the home of his friend, Dr. Scott Baranoff. 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.
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