Compounding the significance of that devastating omission-an omission which concealed the very means and opportunity to dispose permanently of his victim's body-is the documentary evidence found in his home several months after July 1985 showing clearly that his written flight log entry for July 7 was changed from July 7 to August 7. Bierenbaum has been eligible for parole since October 2020. Defendant asserts that because there is evidence of only one earlier act of violence by him against his wife, this murder case should not be considered as a domestic violence homicide, and therefore there is no justification for the single alleged choking episode to be received in evidence along with various threats and other evidence of discord. ). But, when one attentively reviews and critically assesses all the circumstantial evidence, cast in its aggregated and interwoven symmetry, and after applying all natural and reasonable inferences, the conclusion that defendant murdered his wife on July 7, 1985 becomes inescapable, and the evidence excludes beyond a reasonable doubt any reasonable hypothesis of innocence. We agree with only one claim of error. Robert Bierenbaum admitted to killing wife Gail Katz and throwing her body out of an airplane during a December 2020 parole board hearing, according to a new Bierenbaum, a former plastic surgeon, was convicted of killing his first wife, Gail Katz, in 1985. He also disclosed to his date that in the past he had a bad temper, but that it had gotten much better. ABC News reports Robert Bierenbaum made the confession during a parole board hearing in December 2020, about 36 years after his wife, Gail Katz, went missing in New York City. Surgeon Who Murdered Wife Confesses To Killing The two-hour special describes Bierenbaum, a multilinguistic surgeon, skier, chef and pilot, as a Jekyl and Hyde figure. Dalsass and later to Det. In 2000, former plastic surgeon Robert Bierenbaum was convicted of the 1985 murder of his wife Gail Katz. In December 1999, prosecutors charged Bierenbaum based on the circumstantial evidence. She expressed this homicide theory to Sharon one day while defendant was not home. Furthermore, he did not turn over the victim's telephone/ address book until more than two weeks after her disappearance; 7. Defendant was pretty surprised and stunned and asked her what she knew. Getting ready to learn! After the verdict,Snyder ordered him jailed to await sentencing. The psychiatrist communicated the consented-to warning by sending a letter, sometimes referred to as a Tarasoff letter (see Tarasoff v. Regents of Univ. During their entire relationship, she did not observe him make any efforts to locate his missing wife. It was therefore highly relevant to the question of defendant's motive that the jury be allowed to know and consider the consequences the victim intended by threatening defendant with such a disclosure to his superiors and peers, a disclosure which would likely compromise severely his professional status, his personal reputation and standing, and his economic future. Defendant argues that on October 11, when the People turned over to the defense copies of the videotaped demonstration and indicated they intended to offer the videotape into evidence on October 16, the defense uttered the following: I suspect we'll object.. '20/20' Airs Why Robert Bierenbaum Strangled & Threw ABC 20/20 is revealing new details in the case in its episode tonight. Those opinions, contrary to defendant's argument, did not endanger the jury's objectivity, as the record in no way suggests that they were delivered in anything other than a dispassionate and brief manner. This abundant array of damning circumstantial evidence proves beyond any reasonable doubt that defendant intentionally killed this victim, that he did it on the date, at the time and for the reason the People offered; and that he disposed of her body as the People contend. It was appropriately rejected by the jury. In that 1858 case, the Court of Appeals held, without direct proof of the death, or of the violence or other act of the defendant which is alleged to have produced death, a murder conviction may not stand (id. Dr. Baran unequivocally denied she had ever made either of those statements to defendant or that she had even held these opinions. When he exhibited hesitation in responding to her, she jokingly asked him if he had killed his wife. The two circumstances, i.e., 1) that the police never recovered the victim's body and 2) that no one other than the victim and her killer personally witnessed the violent act which ended her life, do not bar a valid murder conviction under current law. denied 77 N.Y.2d 879, 568 N.Y.S.2d 922, 571 N.E.2d 92; see also People v. Laverpool, 267 A.D.2d 93, 700 N.Y.S.2d 139, lv. ), rendered November 29, 2000, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of murder in the second degree, and sentencing him to a term of 20 years to life should be affirmed. Bierenbaum, a former plastic surgeon, was convicted of killing his first wife, Gail Katz, in 1985. | The full 20/20 premieres TONIGHT at 9/8c on @ABC. Plastic Surgeon Robert Bierenbaum Finally Confesses to Tossing Days turned to months, and months to years with no sign of Katz. denied 93 N.Y.2d 1025, 697 N.Y.S.2d 584, 719 N.E.2d 945 [prior assault admissible]; People v. Steinberg, 170 A.D.2d 50, 573 N.Y.S.2d 965, affd. Rather, the tape's contents clearly demonstrate the feasibility of the People's theory of this case, a theory which all of the circumstantial proof together overwhelmingly shows. That the victim died July 7, 1985 is conceded. All of Bierenbaums appeals over the years were unsuccessful. Miller, supra, 291 N.Y. 55, 62, 50 N.E.2d 542 [other citations omitted]), that this jury failed to give the evidence the weight it should be accorded (People v. Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d 490, 495, 515 N.Y.S.2d 761, 508 N.E.2d 672). As for defendant's remaining reliability claims, they raise questions quite properly within the jury's province. of Cal., 17 Cal.3d 425, 131 Cal.Rptr. After reviewing the court's rulings and reasons in this regard, the other evidence, and the court's cautionary instructions to the jury during and at the trial's conclusion, we hold that none of these rulings compromised defendant's right to a fair trial. While defendant understandably argues that this ruling prejudiced him at trial, we hold that under these circumstances it did not unduly do so. denied 95 N.Y.2d 792, 711 N.Y.S.2d 160, 733 N.E.2d 232; People v. Valez, 256 A.D.2d 135, 682 N.Y.S.2d 162, lv. O'Malley that the building doorman said he last saw her leave the building shortly after 11 o'clock on July 7. Gail Katz Bierenbaum./Robert Bierenbaum. I opened the door and then took her body out of the airplane over the ocean, the transcript reads, according to ABC News. https://t.co/RWuaARMIay pic.twitter.com/6FoU3ze3wU, Uncovered (@uncovered) December 16, 2020. At the time, the plastic surgeon claimed innocence, but that has all changed. Report: Man confesses he was 'immature' after throwing wife's He was convicted in her death in 2000, but her body was never found. NR | 10.22.21 | 01:19:49 | CC more episodes 01:20:43 Neither her body nor her remains has ever been found. Defendant's lies, misstatements and omissions powerfully bespeak his consciousness of guilt. He told several people that, just before his wife left the apartment for the last time, they argued. Inmate Name BIERENBAUM, ROBERT Sex MALE Date of Birth 07/22/1955 Race / Ethnicity WHITE Custody Status IN CUSTODY Housing / Releasing Facility ATTICA Date Received (Original) 12/22/2000 Date Received (Current) 12/22/2000 Admission Type NEW COMMITMENT County of Commitment NEW YORK Crimes of Conviction Crime: Inmate Search | Washington State Department of Corrections On this appeal, we address the following four issues: First, defendant contends the trial evidence is legally insufficient and the verdict is against the weight of the evidence. He also once choked Gail into unconsciousness after finding her smoking on their balcony. Katz-Bierenbaums family requested that the remains be reexamined in 1997 when DNA testing became available, according to The Charley Project. At his sentencing, Alayne Katz told the court Bierenbaum killed her sister to prevent her from exposing him as a violent and twisted man, according to the Times. He admitted that during the July 7 argument he failed to heed his psychiatrist's advice to try to defuse the situation and that this argument on the day she disappeared became explosive. He told others that he and the victim argued just before she left for Central Park to cool off; another that a private investigator he had hired found evidence she was living in California probably with financial help from her family; others that she had a drug problem, that she may have disappeared with drug dealers and that she probably was murdered by her druggie friends; others that she may have run off to live with someone in the Caribbean; and others that his missing wife was seen after July 7, 1985 in some type of fugue state in the Central Park area and that it was unlikely she would return. He then drove her body to an airstrip in Caldwell, N.J., and dumped it into the Atlantic Ocean from a single-engine private plane. An accomplished pilot, he took her body onto a four-passenger Cessna 172 Nighthawk and, as the plane flew over the Atlantic, tossed it out the aircraft door. Defendant offered that Gail had, years earlier, attempted suicide. It is on the basis of that history and its relevance to proving an element of the crime charged-and, as well, after the court balances probative value against potential prejudice-that a court may determine the admissibility of prior evidence of aggressiveness, be it acts of domestic violence, threats or otherwise. Robert Bierenbaum was sentenced to 20 years to life and is currently incarcerated at New Yorks Attica Correctional Facility. The email address cannot be subscribed. One of the prosecution's key assertions was that defendant was motivated to kill his wife because she threatened to destroy him by exposing the letter's contents should he fail to meet her divorce demands. [S]peaking in very hushed tones and very rapidly and, sounding extremely upset, she told him that she and defendant had a fight the night or day before. In one instance he falsely claimed that a private detective, whom he also claimed he hired to find her, learned she was living in California with financial support from her family. NEW YORK Dr. Robert Bierenbaum maintained his innocence in 2000 as he was tried and convicted of killing his first wife 15 years before. During a parole hearing in December 2020, two decades after he was jailed and 35 years after Gail disappeared, Bierenbaum finally admitted he murdered his wife. Meanwhile, her husband moved on and began seeing other women. Courts have also considered the status or relationship to the declarant of the person to whom the statement was made *** whether there was a coercive atmosphere, whether it was made in response to questioning and whether the statements reflect an attempt to shift blame or curry favor (James, supra, 93 N.Y.2d at 642-643, 695 N.Y.S.2d 715, 717 N.E.2d 1052 [citing United U.S. v. Matthews, 20 F.3d 538, 546; other citations omitted]). Tarasoff v. Regents of Univ. He was convicted in October 2000 of having murdered his estranged wife, Gail Katz-Bierenbaum 15 years earlier in their Manhattan apartment on July 7, 1985. The former plastic surgeon, who is in prison for the killing, admitted to the parole board in December 2020 that he strangled Katz, 29, before loading her body onto a Cessna 172 and tossing it into the Atlantic Ocean. As a part of that contention, defendant also asserts that the trial justice erred in allowing Hillard Wiese, an attorney and the victim's cousin, to testify about the victim's purported excited utterances describing the choking event. Defendant essentially admitted as much, and was heard to say, more than once, that during one argument there was physical contact, that their last argument was explosive and severe, and that he was frustrated in his marriage because they argued constantly. Accordingly, this claim is unpreserved and we decline to review it in the interest of justice (CPL 470.05[2]; People v. Luperon, 85 N.Y.2d 71, 623 N.Y.S.2d 735, 647 N.E.2d 1243). Defendant contends that the court improperly allowed the prosecution to adduce testimony, and otherwise refer to evidence, that defendant was violent, and that he choked his wife to the point of unconsciousness in late 1983. They argue that when certain established facts are juxtaposed with other proven circumstances, defendant's multiple contradictions and omissions are patently incriminating. tall, weighing 110 lbs.) Because defendant did not have a list with him, Dalsass said he would call defendant's home for it that evening. Medical Examiner's Testimony and Videotaped Demonstration. During the first police interview of defendant on July 8 at 9:00 P.M., lasting 45 minutes, Det. Robert Bierenbaum - Wikipedia Based on what he said at trial, the interval could have been as long as twenty-four hours, hardly a typical time span to qualify as an excited utterance. Second, the record is totally devoid of evidence about what transpired during these many intervening hours to enable the trier of fact to determine, based on the activities of the declarant in the interim, whether the declarant had the opportunity to reflect (id.). According to the Times, she had talked Bierenbaum into seeking psychiatric help for his violent streak. Contemporaneously with these expressions of despair and bewilderment, he promptly had sexual relations on his first date with a nurse in the very room he and his victim had rented for the 1985 summer in the Hamptons, less than a month after she vanished. One can reasonably infer that he knew she would not suddenly return and appear at his bedside. NYC surgeon admits to killing his wife by throwing her out of a plane Furthermore, were we to reach the merits of the videotape's admissibility, we would reject the defense argument that its contents are based on pure speculation and thus were improperly placed before the jury. Starcasm Staff October 22, 2021 20/20, True Crime. 2. He is now eligible for parole and faces a parole hearing in November 2021. Consequently, although defendant had contact with Det. From the rental office's vantage point, one would not have been able to see defendant on the tarmac getting ready to board-and possibly load luggage or other items onto-the plane, which was in a position readily accessible by automobile for such purposes. at 44, 608 N.Y.S.2d 1; cf. Sentenced to 20 years to life after his October 2000 conviction, Bierenbaum became eligible for parole in 2020. Robert Bierenbaum The fact that this was (1983) nothing was done about it., Confession: Gail Katz is pictured in a family photo. denied 94 N.Y.2d 920, 708 N.Y.S.2d 359, 729 N.E.2d 1158 [crime against spouse extinguishes statutory privilege]; People v. Johnson, 84 N.Y.2d 956, 620 N.Y.S.2d 822, 644 N.E.2d 1378 [no statutory or common law parent/child privilege for adult child under these circumstances]), the court correctly decided that defendant waived the privilege. However, the trial justice specifically stated her ruling did not apply to preclude the letter's existence and nature. FindLaw.com Free, trusted legal information for consumers and legal professionals, SuperLawyers.com Directory of U.S. attorneys with the exclusive Super Lawyers rating, Abogado.com The #1 Spanish-language legal website for consumers, LawInfo.com Nationwide attorney directory and legal consumer resources. He was the individual that las[t] saw her in the apartment. Jake Massey. Gail Katz once called her sister, weeping, and said that her husband tried drowning her cat in a toilet at their Upper East Side apartment, Alayne Katz said. In a domestic violence homicide, as this clearly is, it is highly probative-quite often far outweighing any prejudice-that a couple's marriage was strife-ridden and that defendant previously struck and/or threatened the spouse-victim (see People v. La France, 182 A.D.2d 598, 599-600, 583 N.Y.S.2d 835, lv. A UNIT FINDINGS RECOMMENDATION Dalsass waited until 12:30 A.M. and left the first of approximately eight messages on defendant's home answering machine and at his work number during the ensuing week. A surgeon who murdered his wife admitted to the killing more than 30 years later. The New York Times reported in 1999 that authorities believed he spent hours dismembering Katzs body before taking flight and dumping it into the water somewhere between Montauk Point, New York, and Cape May, New Jersey. That was not always the case. Robert Bierenbaum admitted he threw his wife's body out of an airplane and into the ocean nearly three decades ago during a parole hearing in December 2020, ABC Robert Bierenbaum Admits To Murdering Wife, Gail Katz: Shes not with me, and shes not with my parents, and at that moment I know that my sisters dead, Katz said. Defendant contends: 1) that the trial justice improperly allowed the People to adduce opinion testimony that he was able, as a trained surgical resident, to dismember the victim's body within ten minutes, and also capable of packing it into a flight bag, whether or not the body had been disarticulated; and 2) that the court improperly permitted the jury to watch a videotaped demonstration depicting how a pilot can, without any assistance, load a 110 pound body, so packaged, onto a Cessna 172 airplane, fly it over the ocean, and discard it overboard. He hasnt changed. Mar 15, 1999. Although no DNA tests were available at the time to confirm whether the remains were that of the missing woman, it was assumed that Gail had been located, The Charley Project reported. Third, he argues that the trial justice should have precluded, and that the prosecutor inappropriately used, evidence that defendant choked his wife rendering her unconscious in the autumn of 1983, including evidence of her statements to her cousin over the phone, which the court admitted as excited utterances.. Dalsass he would respond to his request to view the apartment, defendant in fact did not contact Dalsass until September 12, 1985, and he did not permit entry until September 30. Her body was never found and the great weight of the evidence shows that she was anything but desperate or depressed so that one might reasonably fear she was contemplating suicide. This logic and rationale accords with well-settled law in New York in these matters (People v. Angel, 238 A.D.2d 210, 656 N.Y.S.2d 256, lv. Finally, although the alleged assault she recounted was undoubtedly extremely frightening, the proof shows her mental state so many hours later was not shown to be dominated by the same level of heightened excitement that would normally overwhelm a person in the immediate aftermath of such a recent traumatic shock. His claim of innocence-and the presumption which accompanies it-have been utterly overwhelmed and destroyed by the People's proof. (Photo courtesy of Alayne Katz). A jury convicted Robert Bierenbaum of second-degree murder based on circumstantial evidence that on July 7, 1985 he intentionally killed his wife, Gail Katz Bierenbaum, in their Manhattan apartment; transported her body to a New Jersey airport the same day; loaded it onto a small private plane; and piloted it over the Atlantic Ocean where he discarded her remains. Illustrative-but not exhaustive-are the following examples: 1. denied 92 N.Y.2d 893, 680 N.Y.S.2d 57, 702 N.E.2d 842). Cigarettes were not allowed in their home, according to Bierenbaum. Forever in our hearts.. Kieran Crowley. In 1989, while Bierenbaum relocated from Manhattan to Las Vegas, Nevada, to set up a new medical practice, a partial female body washed ashore in Staten Island, New York, near the area where authorities believed Bierenbaum dumped his wifes remains, according to The Charley Project. A King County Superior Court jury today found Robert Parker guilty of two counts of aggravated murder in the stabbing and strangulation of two Shoreline-area The Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) strongly emphasizes the importance of inclusion and representation by recognizing the unique challenges that non-binary and transgender incarcerated people face Gov. The Surgeon's Wife In fact, defendant even misstated to Det. That defendant was the last person who saw her, and who was known to have been alone with her until 11:00 A.M. that day, cannot be persuasively disputed on the basis of this record. DNA tests showed the body was not Katz-Bierenbaum, the missing persons website reported. And if shes not alive, theres only one person who is a likely suspect to murder her, and its Bob. The justice allowed the jury to learn only of its existence and nature, but not of its specific contents beyond its warning to the victim that defendant posed a threat to her. He also failed to mention to both Det. The couples stormy marriage continued as Katz worked toward her doctorate in clinical psychology at Long Island University. Conviction of former Minot surgeon In other words, they may be admitted only if the acts help establish some element of the crime under consideration (People v. Lewis, 69 N.Y.2d 321, 325, 514 N.Y.S.2d 205, 506 N.E.2d 915). 576 ratings36 reviews. However, Dr. Baran unequivocally denied she had ever said anything like that to defendant or that she ever discussed anything with him on that subject. Judged by that standard, we find and hold that the circumstantial evidence adduced at this trial decisively extinguishes any doubt that defendant Robert Bierenbaum, and no one else, intentionally killed his wife Gail Katz Bierenbaum, brought her body to Caldwell Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey, loaded it onto a small plane, flew it over the Atlantic Ocean, and, there, dumped her remains. He said Katz had stormed out of their apartment following an argument the morning before and not returned. at 569, 457 N.Y.S.2d 451, 443 N.E.2d 925). He therefore contends it was inadmissible under Nucci v. Proper, 95 N.Y.2d 597, 721 N.Y.S.2d 593, 744 N.E.2d 128 even if it were deemed otherwise allowable. First, the court prohibited the People from showing the letter to the jury and, second, they were not permitted to adduce anything other than oral testimony describing only the type of letter the victim had received from defendant's psychiatrist. NEW YORK Dr. Robert Bierenbaum maintained his innocence in 2000 as he was tried and convicted of killing his first wife 15 years before. However, notwithstanding that, initially, the police carefully explained to him at least three times their critical need to know every detail he was able to recall in order to aid their search efforts, he withheld all of this information during their interview with him-one encounter a mere 34 hours, and the others all within 7 days, following his wife's disappearance. She was speaking spontaneously; she repeated the statements separately to various people in her life; her statements about the troubled side of their marriage were a natural consequence of corroborated facts about their marriage; she was, by all indications, in good mental health; there appears no reason for her to have fabricated the matters she discussed at the time of her utterances; and her statements largely concerned private matters that some would be embarrassed or otherwise reluctant to disclose. To one of his Southampton summer housemates in July 1985, with a demeanor described as lacking in emotion, he said he and his wife fought on July 7 and she had taken a towel and some suntan lotion and had gone to Central Park. denied 80 N.Y.2d 905, 588 N.Y.S.2d 831, 602 N.E.2d 239; People v. Shorey, 172 A.D.2d 634, 568 N.Y.S.2d 436, lv. Regarding the videotape, defendant stated he had no objection to its introduction when, on October 16, 2000, it was offered into evidence at trial. Together, the two women looked for and found defendant's flight log. Indeed, his behavior utterly belies his claims of ignorance of his victim's whereabouts. Through the testimony of several witnesses, including four expert witnesses-New York City's Chief Medical Examiner, an experienced New York City Police Pilot, an aviation safety inspector, and an airline transport pilot/flight instructor/FAA flight test examiner-the People established that it was physically possible for defendant, a surgical resident and pilot, unassisted, to disarticulate a recently expired body of the victim's size (5ft. Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) Ex-surgeon confesses to killing wife, throwing her body out of The December parole hearing at which he admitted his guilt was unsuccessful. She told Wiese she was speaking quickly and softly because she was expecting defendant. On July 7, 1985, at 4:30 P.M., he rented a Cessna 172 plane at Caldwell Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey. Moreover, his behavior with other women so soon after July 7 is inconsistent with behavior one would reasonably anticipate from a husband whose wife had mysteriously disappeared, notwithstanding that their marriage was stormy.
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