By Sanya Khetani
The trial of a teenager accused of murdering a WABC newsman after a sexual encounter gone wrong was replete with contradictory testimonies on day three.
The defendant John Katehis, 18, claimed that he had only “jabbed” victim George Webber, 47, once in the neck with a knife, and that it had happened “accidentally” in self-defense. This statement was recorded by the King’s County District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau after Katehis’s arrest by the 76th precinct on March 25, 2009.
However, according to the testimony of Dr. Floriana Persechino, the Medical Examiner assigned to the case, Weber was stabbed at least 40 times in the head, neck, chest and arms. Dr. Persechino declared the cause of death to be “exsanguination”, or bleeding to death.
Throughout Dr. Persechino’s testimony, Katehis, wearing a crisp pink shirt and tie that made him look more like a high school senior than a criminal, remained unmoved, even glancing back and smiling at the press a few times. His demeanor seemed to carry over from his taped statement, where he was seen joking and laughing with the interrogator while eating donuts.
Defense Attorney Jeffrey Schwartz claimed that the detectives who arrested his client and took his statement had tried to “make him comfortable” so that he would give them a statement that could essentially amount to a confession. He also asked the representative of the DA’s Homicide Bureau why no follow-up questions to the statement had been asked of his client while in custody. However, Judge Firetog said that a representative of the DA’s office was not the “proper witness” for questions on “police policy and technique.”
In an effort to prove that his client had unintentionally stabbed the victim only once, Schwartz also said that since Dr. Persechino had only examined the stab wounds on Weber’s body without examining possible murder weapons, there was no way to conclusively prove which or whose knife had caused the victim’s multiple injuries. “Without the actual blade, you cannot determine which injury [was caused by it],” Schwartz said.
While Katehis claimed in his statement that he “[likes] his knives and swords” – some of which have names like “The Claw” and “Fury” – he said he was not carrying a knife that night, as he went to Weber’s apartment straight from school.
Katehis said he often responded to advertisements on Craigslist to make “quick cash.” On March 18, 2009, he responded to Weber’s advertisement for an erotic encounter, which would involve binding Weber’s feet with duct tape and “smothering” him for $60. An appointment was set for March 20, 2009.
Katehis claimed that Weber offered him cocaine when he went to his Cobble Hill apartment. “It was the first time I was doing coke… I became really jumpy after that,” he said. But according to testimony from a criminologist from the NYC Police Laboratory, no evidence of any drugs was found in the victim’s apartment.
Katehis said all was well until he had bound Weber’s ankles, which is when Weber pulled a knife from his pocket. “I grabbed it [the knife] and we were pulling it back and forth and I cut my hand,” said Katehis, who claims the cocaine had made him “paranoid.” Not only did he injure himself, he also cut part of Weber’s jugular vein. “Everything flew by so quick,” Katehis said.
As today’s hearing went over time by more than half an hour and a few jurors were seen nodding off, Judge Firetog said that he hoped the testimonies would be concluded by Thursday, so that the case could go to jury deliberation on Monday.
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