Opinion ID: 2638116
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Prosecution Rebutted Evidence

Text: A toxicologist called by the prosecutor disputed the defense pharmacologist's analysis of the results of defendant's drug tests. He disagreed with the defense expert's statement that a urinary benzoylecgonine concentration greater than 6,000 nanograms per milliliter suggested the subject had smoked more than a single hit of crack cocaine. He stated the defense expert had used an incorrect value for the half-life of benzoylecgonine in answering the hypothetical question regarding blood levels of that chemical. Using the correct half-life value, he opined the hypothetical person's blood benzoylecgonine concentration would have been around 890 nanograms per milliliter, rather than the 90 nanograms per milliliter measured in defendant's blood the day after the crime. Calculating backward from the measured blood concentration, the prosecution toxicologist found that concentration could have resulted from smoking about 100 milligrams of crack cocaine (about one hit) at 1:00 p.m. the day before the blood sample was taken. A psychiatrist and a psychologist called by the prosecutor both disagreed with the opinions of the defense experts that defendant had killed Joey during a brief psychotic break with reality caused by borderline personality disorder and triggered by crack cocaine use. According to the prosecution psychiatrist, a cocaine-induced break with reality can occur but only in extreme situations ... in terms of dose and duration of exposure, as when a person uses cocaine for days on end without eating or sleeping. The psychologist noted that borderline personality disorder commonly involves suicidal or self-mutilatory acts or gestures, which were not present in defendant's history, and opined that to the extent defendant had a personality disorder it was a mixed personality disorder with predominantly anti-social features. As to a break in contact with reality during the killing, the psychologist observed that before and after the killing defendant had acted in a rational manner; he opined that psychotic decompensation doesn't just happen with the flick of a switch. He would also expect a cocaine-triggered psychotic episode to occur when the intoxication from the cocaine was at its greatest,; rather than several hours later when defendant killed Joey. The prosecution psychologist also observed that defendant, when he initially confessed to the 1981 attack on his schoolmate, did not mention having heard voices directing him to attack the victim, though he later told a psychologist he had. The videotape of defendant's initial 1981 interview with a Manhattan prosecutor was played for the jury. In that interview, defendant said that he was drinking whisky with three friends, including the victim. When one `of them got sick, they took him to the hospital. In the late evening, defendant was alone with the victim in the victim's bedroom. Defendant went to the kitchen for a drink of water, but also took a large kitchen knife from a drawer and brought it back to the bedroom. When the victim went to turn off the stereo, defendant stabbed him in the back. The victim fell onto his bed and asked defendant to take him to the hospital. Instead, defendant got some Vaseline from the bathroom and, after pulling down the victim's pants and underpants, put Vaseline on his anus and sodomized him. Defendant then departed, leaving the victim undressed with the knife still in him.