They’re shouting and almost mutinying, but the Manhattan “cleaver slay” jury still managed to get through day three of deliberations without a mistrial — or a verdict — today.
Jurors were told to return Monday morning to continue weighing the fate of cleaver-swinging schizophrenic David Tarloff, who is seeking an insanity defense in the 2008 killing of Upper East Side psychologist Kathryn Faughey during a botched robbery.
Things got rocky late yesterday, when one juror sent out a note requesting to be removed from the case “due to other jurors and their negative attitudes.
“I would rather go home and be removed from this case,” the unnamed juror wrote Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Edward McLaughlin, who urged them to put aside personalities and focus on deliberating in good faith.
Still, at times today, faint shouts could be heard through the deliberation room walls. “It sounded like it was getting a little robust in there,” noted Faughey’s brother, Owen, who has attended the trial daily along with others among the victim’s six surviving siblings.
“We know it’s a difficult decision to make,” Owen added as the family left court for a weekend of waiting. “But we want them to get it right, and we’ll be back here Monday.”
The siblings have said that they believe Tarloff understood his actions were wrong when he plunged a boning knife to the hilt into their sister’s chest, and are hoping for a murder conviction.
One of four alternate jurors released from the trial at the end of the day agreed.
“I would say beyond the shadow of a doubt that my verdict is with the prosecution,” said the alternate number one, Paige Hanson.
“There’s no question in my mind that he knew what he did was wrong,” she said, citing evidence that Tarloff had used an alias and cleaned up blood evidence afterward.
Asked for her thoughts on Tarloff, Hanson took a deep breath. “My impression of David Tarloff?” she said. “He is a sick man who did a wrong thing. And knew it.”
Losing even one juror at this point would likely scuttle the month-long trial. To continue, defense lawyers would have to agree to either the substitution of an alternate or the continuation of deliberations with only eleven jurors, both unlikely prospects.
Tarloff faces life in prison if convicted of murder, and an indefinite term in a locked psychiatric facility if found not responsible by reason of insanity.