“And it’s just as possible you’re wrong,” Karp said. “Essentially, you were asked to look at these pieces of so-called evidence and then guess as to their impact, if any, on the defendant in light of the charges he faced?” he asked.
“Objection, Your Honor,” Langton said. “The defense isn’t asking for anyone to guess; we were asking for an expert opinion.”
“Sustained. Mr. Karp, perhaps you should rephrase your question,” Dermondy said.
“Very well, Your Honor,” Karp said, turning back to the psychiatrist. “It’s fair to say, Doctor, that there’s no scientific certainty underlying your opinion.”
“No, there’s no certainty,” the psychiatrist said. “It’s just based on my experience.”
“Well, isn’t it fair to say that not all people with X-rays and CAT scans showing those same so-called abnormalities go out and rape and murder innocent women?”
“Certainly not all,” the psychiatrist responded.
“Then it’s fair to say your analysis could be mistaken?” Karp asked.
“I’m not infallible,” the psychiatrist admitted.
The psychiatrist had also testified about the effects of methamphetamine on the brain and the personality of users. “First, it gives the user a sense of empowerment,” he said. “But over time it also tends to cause paranoia, as well as violent mood swings.”
Karp shrugged it off on the cross-examination. “Was the defendant forced to use this drug?”
“No,” the psychiatrist admitted. “At least not to my knowledge.”
“Did this drug cause him to boast to the Cassinos about what he’d done?” Karp asked.
“Again, it tends to make the user feel powerful-”
“Powerful about murdering two women in cold blood? And did this drug cause him to try to hide what he’d done, including threatening people he told and allowing an innocent man to be indicted for his crimes?”
“I would say that had more to do with him fearing retribution.”
“So washing up immediately after the killings, changing shirts, would be indications he knew right from wrong?” Karp asked.
“Yes.”
“As would threatening people he told?”
“Yes.”
“So essentially what we know is that he took methamphetamine for his own pleasure and while possibly on the drug tortured and murdered two women?”
When the psychologists and psychiatrist were gone, the defense called in two experts to discuss Kadyrov’s “tormented” childhood in Chechnya. The first, a Russian history professor at Columbia University, testified about the Russian military’s brutal behavior in Chechnya after the latter declared independence. He detailed the systematic genocide perpetrated on the civilian population, “which included wholesale raping of women and mass executions.”
The second expert had testified that a child who had experienced watching his mother and sister being raped and murdered by Russian troops “could be expected to show signs of post-traumatic stress that could include acting out violently, even many years later.” During his examination of the defendant, the expert said, he’d noted that Kadyrov “went so far as to identify more with the soldiers that committed the atrocities than with his own family members.”
Karp limited his questioning of the experts so as not to give them greater weight than he felt they deserved. As if only mildly curious, he asked each if there were any studies that “proved” that “all, or even many, people who experienced what the defendant experienced as a child became murderously violent many years later after they were removed from the environment.”
“I believe there is anecdotal evidence to support this view,” the second expert replied.
“Would it be fair to say that by far most people who experience even such horrors as you’ve described in Chechnya do not end up becoming murderers themselves?” Karp asked.
“That’s probably fair,” the expert admitted.
After the expert left the courtroom, there was a short, quiet, but heated conversation at the defense table. Then, sounding resigned, Langton rose to call Ahmed Kadyrov to the stand, obviously against his attorneys’ wishes.
For nearly an hour, Kadyrov wept as he described the rape and murder of his mother and sister and how that came into play in Olivia Yancy’s apartment. He claimed that he had not intended to harm either woman and had merely bound Olivia to keep her from escaping when her mother showed up.
“She attacked me,” he cried. “I was frightened and fought back. Suddenly she was like the Russian soldiers and I was defending myself and the girl on the bed. I don’t remember stabbing her, but then she was lying on the floor with blood everywhere.”
“What happened then?” Langton asked.
“I turned to the other girl, and I don’t know, my mind snapped,” Kadyrov said. “Suddenly I was Russian soldier and she was my mother. I felt rage and… after that I blacked out. The next thing I know, I am standing in front of mirror trying to wash blood from my hands.”
Kadyrov buried his face in his hands and cried in great racking sobs. But when he looked up, hoping to see some measure of pity in the jurors’ faces, he found none.
“Mr. Kadryov, you made a great show of crying on the stand,” Karp said. “Can I ask you how many times you cried for these women you butchered?”
“Many times.”
“Really?” Karp asked. “Did you cry when you saw the terror in Olivia Yancy’s eyes, or as you told the Cassinos, did you tell her to shut the fuck up or you were going to cut her head off?”
“I was thinking I was Russian soldier.”
“And did you cry as you were raping Olivia Yancy while her mother lay dying on the floor?”
Kadyrov didn’t answer. He just sat there, stone-faced, as Karp took another step toward him.
“I know you want us to believe that you thought you were a Russian soldier,” Karp said sarcastically. “But did you cry when you yanked her head back and sawed away at her neck? Or as she drowned in her own blood?”
“No. I-”
“And long after you were no longer thinking you were a Russian soldier, like when you were at the Cassinos’ apartment and boasted that you were the Columbia U Slasher, did you cry then?”
“No. I could not show weakness.”
“Nor, apparently, compassion or remorse. And how about later when you went to the Cassinos’ apartment to try to get the blue shirt back so that it couldn’t be used against you in court, did you cry then?”
“No, I was frightened.”
“More frightened than Beth Jenkins or Olivia Yancy?”
“Objection,” Langton shouted.
“I withdraw the question,” Karp said. He glared hard at Kadyrov, who blanched. “You didn’t cry at all for these women, did you, Mr. Kadyrov? Instead, you enjoyed murdering and raping them, didn’t you?”
“Objection! The witness has not said that.”
“No, you haven’t yet, have you, Mr. Kadyrov,” Karp said, continuing. “But you liked seeing the terror, hearing their helpless cries, knowing that they were aware they were going to die at your hands, didn’t you, Mr. Kadyrov?”
“Your Honor, I’ve objected!” Langton shouted.
“Sit down, sooka!” Kadyrov screamed from the stand. He stood and faced the jury as the court officers started to move toward him, but Karp extended his right arm and motioned for them to stop.
Spitting, Kadyrov yelled, “If you vote to kill me, you’ll have my life on your consciences. I’ll haunt your sleep and will be in the shadows watching you for as long as you live.”
Calmly, without batting an eye, Karp said, “Sit down, Mr. Kadyrov, your threats have the impact of a feather. We’re not through with you yet. Your Honor, no further questions, but I do want to call a rebuttal witness.”
“Your Honor, I am calling Moishe Sobelman, whose experiences as a child are not just similar to those of the defendant but greatly exceed them in horror,” Karp told the court. “The defendant just gave us a sob story about how the atrocities he committed against Olivia Yancy and Beth Jenkins are somehow excusable in light of what he experienced as a child. Mr. Sobelman is an expert in his own right regarding the murder of family members by soldiers acting under the guise of military authority, as well as how someone might cope with such an experience.”