Court hears of man's midnight visits
Private detective videotaped van of alleged US lover
A van owned by the alleged lover of Nancy Ann Kissel was seen outside her house a few months before she allegedly murdered her husband, a private detective told the Court of First Instance yesterday.
Rocco Gatta, who formerly worked for New York detective agency the Alpha Group, played the jury two video recordings that showed Michael del Priore's van parked outside the Kissel family's house in Stratton, Vermont. The van was spotted four times during his two surveillance missions, which lasted for 11 days in June and July 2003.
Mr Gatta, who now works for the Trump Group, said he was instructed in June 2003 by his superior at the Alpha Group, Frank Shea, to carry out surveillance on Kissel at the request of her husband, Robert Peter Kissel. The two detectives have been called to Hong Kong as prosecution witnesses.
The prosecution alleges that Kissel had an affair with del Priore, a TV repair man, during the few months she stayed in Vermont with her three children and a maid to escape Hong Kong's Sars outbreak.
Mr Gatta said he twice saw the van parked halfway down the driveway of Kissel's house about midnight so 'it was not visible to the roadway'. The van, with a New Hampshire number plate, was also shown in the videos parked at the house during the day.
Near midnight on July 24, 2003, Mr Gatta saw the van arriving with its headlights off, he said. He later saw the van leave with no headlights until it got to the main road.
He said he learned from Mr Shea earlier that day that Kissel would leave for New York City the next day and he thought it likely del Priore would visit her that night.
Kissel, 40, is accused of murdering her husband on or about November 2, 2003, in their luxury Parkview flat in Tai Tam. The deceased, whose body was found rolled up in a carpet in a storeroom rented by the defendant at Parkview, was the Asia-Pacific managing director of global principal products for Merrill Lynch.
Evidence was also given yesterday that Robert Kissel was admitted to the Adventist Hospital in Stubbs Road in September 1999 with 'boxer's fracture' of his right little finger. Daniel Wu, his orthopaedic surgeon, told the court the problem was so named because it was usually the outcome of punching a hard object.
Dr Wu said an X-ray indicated his patient had the same injury previously in the same area of his finger. When asked by Gary Plowman SC, for the defence, if he had asked Robert Kissel what caused the fracture, he said patients tended to be embarrassed by such a question. 'They are usually reluctant to say why,' he said.
Mr Plowman also pointed out the list of experts Jane Clayton, the deceased's sister, sent to her brother in early 2003 in response to the Kissels' marriage problems, included clinical psychologists and psychiatrists. He asked Ms Clayton whether they were connected to her brother's needs. She said she was seeking marriage counsellors. 'All we talked about was getting help for the marriage,' she said.
Records of a New York life insurance company, with which the deceased held three life insurance policies worth US$5 million, suggested the defendant knew about the policies.
The case continues on Monday.
