MAD MONEY: Prosecutors say that David Tarloff (above) was sane when he invaded an Upper East Side psychiatrist’s office, slashing and scarring Dr. Kent Shinbach with a cleaver. (Steven Hirsch)
MAD MONEY: Prosecutors say that David Tarloff (inset) was sane when he invaded an Upper East Side psychiatrist’s office, slashing and scarring Dr. Kent Shinbach (above left, outside of court yesterday) with a cleaver. (
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Give me $1,000! Or $500! All right, $250!
Cleaver-swinging killer David Tarloff was clearheaded enough to haggle over dollar amounts during his botched robbery of an Upper East Side psychiatry office, according to dramatic — and highly damaging — prosecution testimony yesterday.
As Tarloff slashed wildly at the face, hands and arms of 70-year-old psychiatrist Dr. Kent Shinbach, he made crystal-clear commands, taunts and threats, the victim told rapt jurors on the second day of the madman’s murder trial.
“He said, ‘OK, give me your money,’ or, ‘I want a thousand dollars,’ ” recalled Shinbach of the February 2008 confrontation.
“I said, ‘I don’t have a thousand dollars.’ He said, ‘I’ll take $500,’ ” Shinbach recalled calmly.
“I said, ‘I don’t have $500.’ And he said, ‘I’ll take $250.’ ”
At the time, Shinbach was not in a very good bargaining position. He was on his back on the carpeted floor of the East 79th Street office of his psychologist colleague, Dr. Kathryn Faughey, whose corpse lay just a few feet away.
Tarloff’s cleaver sliced so deeply into Shinbach’s face, “my cheek was falling off — my right cheek,” he told jurors, still calm, his fingers rising to touch the remaining scar.
Shinbach knew his attacker — a paranoid schizophrenic who is hoping to be found not guilty by reason of insanity. He had treated Tarloff nearly two decades prior.
His plan that day was to rob Shinbach — but Faughey, 56, confronted him first, losing her life, both sides agree.
“Kathryn? Are you all right?” Shinbach recalled saying upon entering her office after hearing muffled screams and the sound of moving furniture.
“She’s dead,” Tarloff answered, springing at Shinbach from behind a desk and pushing him to the floor.
“He was shouting, screaming, ‘I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you,’ ” Shinbach testified. “I realized I had to do something or I would be slaughtered right then.”
They fought — with Tarloff at one point pinning Shinbach under a chair and taunting, “How do you like that?” — and Tarloff demanded money.
After the haggling session, Shinbach handed over his wallet, which Tarloff examined, removing the doctor’s family photos, drivers license and credit cards.
Tarloff pocketed the doctor’s $90 in cash, complaining, “Is that all you have?” He then demanded Shinbach’s PIN — and exploded when the doctor tried to bluff him with a seven-digit number, Shinbach said.
“I know where you live,” Tarloff yelled, swinging the knife he allegedly used to kill Faughey. “I’m going to stick this knife into your wife if you’re lying to me,” Shinbach said Tarloff told him.
Asked to assess Tarloff not just as a victim, but as a psychiatrist, Shinbach shared this observation, devastating to the defense team’s insanity claim: “He was entirely focused on the task at hand, which was assaulting me.”