A handsome, blue-eyed cat killer goes on trial in Manhattan today, hoping to convince a jury that he was acting in self-defense when he fatally bludgeoned Norman, his girlfriend’s little tabby, in her Greenwich Street apartment.
It could be a hard sell, given their 198-pound difference in size.
Felony animal-cruelty defendant Joseph Petcka, a table-waiting TV actor, is a former Mets minor-league pitcher and weighs in at an athletic 205 pounds.
Norman, an orange and white domestic long-haired cat, weighed in at 7 1/2 pounds before dying last year from injuries that included a cut lip, three broken ribs, fractured teeth, a split tongue, torn lungs and blood in his chest cavity, according to officials.
Still, Petcka, 37, of Brooklyn, insists Norman instigated everything.
“My client reacted to the attack of a cat, which under the law is allowable,” said defense lawyer Charles Hochbaum.