US jury deliberating in NZ murder accused case

ITHACA, New York April - A jury has begun deliberating in the trial of a New Zealand man accused of murdering his wife of eight months on a New York nature trail.

Blazej Kot, who was studying at Cornell University, has pleaded not guilty to the murder, but guilty to the manslaughter of his wife Caroline Coffey in June last year.

Kot has said he slashed his wife's throat while suffering from a mental disorder that made him think she'd been replaced by an identical-looking impostor.

But a prosecutor dismissed his justification for the killing as a ludicrous attempt to elude blame for a premeditated murder carried out simply to end an unhappy relationship.

"The simplest explanation is usually the true explanation," assistant district attorney Andrew McElwee said in closing arguments.

"The defence wants it to be fantastical. The simplest explanation is true - the defendant was unhappy with his life."

During the three-week trial, defence psychiatrist Dr Gary Houghtalen asserted that Kot, 25, suffered from a schizophrenia-type personality disorder known as "Capgras delusion" that made him fear he was being tested by unseen forces, leading him to believe he could only end the conspiracy by killing Dr Coffey.

Charged with murder, arson and tampering with physical evidence, Kot could get up to 25 years to life in prison if found guilty.

The defence urged jurors to reduce the murder charge to manslaughter.

Born to Polish parents in Zaire, Kot was stricken with malaria as a child. He later moved with his family to New Zealand, attended the University of Auckland and went to Cornell on a student visa to pursue a doctorate in information science.

The jury deliberated for nearly four hours today (New York time) and will resume tomorrow morning.

- AP