NEW YORK (AP) - After five years of stalls and starts, a murder case against a mental patient charged with the meat-cleaver killing of a Manhattan psychotherapist is set to go to trial.
Jury selection is due to start Monday in David Tarloff's case. It's been on hold for years at a time because of his mental state. He's schizophrenic.
Tarloff's lawyers don't dispute that he killed Kathryn Faughey in 2008. But they argue he was so psychotic he shouldn't be held criminally responsible for her death.
Prosecutors and Faughey's family say Tarloff carried out a considered, violent scheme.
Tarloff has said he wanted to rob Faughey's office mate. He hoped to get the doctor's ATM code, withdraw $40,000, whisk his mother out of a nursing home and escape with her to Hawaii.