NEW YORK – A jury has deadlocked in the murder trial of a mental patient who slashed a New York City psychotherapist to death with a meat cleaver.
A judge declared a mistrial Tuesday after jurors said they couldn't reach a verdict in David Tarloff's case.
Tarloff didn't dispute that he killed Kathryn Faughey (FAW'-hee) in February 2008. But defense lawyers say Tarloff's schizophrenia made him so psychotic that he couldn't tell that what he was doing was wrong.
The Manhattan district attorney's office says Tarloff carried out a deliberate plan and understood it was illegal.
Tarloff told authorities he set out to rob Faughey's officemate, encountered her instead and thought she was evil.
Tarloff envisioned getting money from the hold-up to whisk his sick mother away to Hawaii.
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