NZer's lawyer eyes anti-malaria drug as factor

Blazej Kot is accused of murdering wife Caroline. Photo / Supplied

New York prosecutors trying New Zealander Blazej Kot for his wife's murder are resisting attempts to introduce a mental illness related to anti-malaria medication as a defence.

Kot's lawyer, Joe Joch, has cited a condition called "chloroquine psychosis" and said he intended to call an infectious disease expert to testify about it, the Ithaca Journal newspaper reported.

Court papers showed District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson asked Judge John Rowley to exclude any chloroquine testimony, as the trial was underway and the lack of notice of the testimony was an "ambush".

Kot, 25, a graduate of Auckland University and formerly a PhD student at Cornell University in New York State is accused of fatally slashing the throat of his wife, Dr Caroline Coffey, 28, on a jogging trail on June 2, then setting fire to their Ithaca apartment.

The defence case is due to start tomorrow.

Mr Joch has said Kot killed Dr Coffey due to an extreme emotional disturbance, a defence that would lessen murder to manslaughter.

Kot began to believe Dr Coffey had been replaced by an identical-looking stranger, Mr Joch said in an opening argument.

In court papers he said Kot suffered from malaria after his birth in Zaire and his mental state was affected by chloroquine he took about the time he and his wife travelled to Costa Rica for a marriage ceremony last May.

Psychiatrist Rory Houghtalen said chloroquine led to "the onset of both major mood and psychotic psychopathology," Mr Joch told the court.

The judge reserved his decision on the issue.

The defence case is expected to include testimony from Kot's parents Barbara and Leszek, who live in east Auckland, and his sister Lucja, who was studying computer science at Cornell University.

- NZPA