By Katherine Ramsland

(Continued)

advertisement

Proof of Intent

With a shorter haircut than on the day of his arrest, the defendant seemed to go in and out of consciousness, seldom looking at the witness stand and showing no evidence of the self-inflicted stab wounds to his neck — reportedly a dozen of them made during his apprehension in 2005.  He grew more attentive when the jury learned from different merchants how Braunstein had accumulated the supplies he needed for the assault, beginning with eBay transactions dating back to January 2005.  He used various screen names to buy chloroform, an FDNY coat and pants, a Detroit police badge, and a supply of potassium nitrate for his smoke bombs.  There appeared to be a clear method to what he collected rather than engaging in a disorganized series of acquisitions out of which he happened to find what he needed.  Indeed, he purchased a ski mask to conceal his identity and a gun and knife to possibly ensure his victim's compliance.  He also bought a pair of handcuffs and a gas mask (which he abandoned after the incident).

badge and wallet e bay

Gottlieb wanted the jury to believe that his client had slowly devolved from a man once capable of holding a job and having relationships into one who could no longer take the pressure because he had a problem in his brain.  There was no evidence that he had raped or even attempted to rape the victim, so Gottlieb claimed it was not a sexually motivated assault.  (Apparently groping the woman's breasts and genitals, or forcing her to wear nothing but sexy shoes, did not count as sexual.)

There was little doubt the Braunstein was the perpetrator.  The alleged victim identified him, and his DNA and fingerprints were found in her apartment.  A shaft of her hair, identified via DNA analysis, was on his ski mask.  Bizarrely, says the New York Post, when a videotape was played of a reenactment of the firebombs, "he appeared to surface from his professed psychoactive-medication-multiple-head fracture-paranoid-schizophrenia stupor."  It was the only moment that seemed to engage him.

Next Page

Previous Page

by Katherine Ramsland

For More Daily Crime News

Peter Braunstein Full Coverage & Breaking News