By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — The mentally ill man who fatally stabbed a psychiatrist and attacked another with a meat cleaver in an Upper East Side office in 2008 is expected to use the insanity defense when his trial begins on Tuesday.
Long-time psychiatric patient David Tarloff, 42, was charged with the murder of Kathryn Faughey, who shared an East 79th Street office with another psychiatrist who had treated him previously. Tarloff admitted to killing Faughey and said he was carrying out God's wishes on the day of the crime.
His lawyer Bryan Konoski plans to argue that Tarloff is not responsible for the crime by reason of insanity. Konoski says the 10,000 pages of medical records documenting treatment for his client's mental illness proves he is not a sane man.
"Everything about his thought process was so bizarre — so crazy — that the proof in the case shows he was legally insane at the time of the commission of the offenses," Konoski said.
The 2008 attack was aimed at psychiatrist Kent Shinbach, who shared an office with Faughey and had once had Tarloff committed to an inpatient mental facility. Shinbach was also attacked with a meat cleaver by Tarloff on the day Faughey was killed, but he escaped with his life.
Tarloff reportedly told authorities the attack was part of a plan to get his mother out of a nursing home. He told police he planned to rob Shinbach to finance his attempt to spring his mother.
Tarloff was previously deemed unfit to stand trial, but the decision was reversed within the past year.
Jury selection will begin Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court. Tarloff faces up to life in prison if convicted.
