
Feb 18, 2008 10:40 am US/Eastern
Psych Test Ordered For Meat Cleaver Murder Suspect
Tarloff Arraigned On Murder, Assault Charges
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
During a strange court appearance Sunday, 39-year-old David Tarloff, the man accused of brutally killing a Manhattan psychologist, made several incoherent statements, while members of the victim's family said he should never have been on the street in the first place.
Flowers are still fresh at the makeshift shrine for Dr. Kathryn Faughey. The psychologist was hacked to death Tuesday in her office on East 79th street.
In a Manhattan criminal court, a fidgety, rambling Tarloff began yelling when he was arraigned on charges of second-degree murder for the slaying of Faughey, and second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault for the attack on another psychologist, Dr. Kent Shinbach.
It was Shinbach who committed Tarloff in 1991 and was his intended target, police said.
Pointing at his court appointed lawyer, Tarloff yelled, "I'm not stupid; he's not an attorney. I don't know him." When the legal aid lawyer identified himself as Reginald Sharpe, an agitated Tarloff pointed at him and shouted, "This man is lying; look at him he's white."
At the Staten Island home of his father, Leonard Tarloff, no one answered the door.
"I am not prepared to make a statement at this time," said the defendant's brother, Robert Tarloff. He later told reporters off camera his family tried to keep his brother institutionalized, but he kept getting released.
Tarloff will once again be hospitalized, this time at Bellevue Hospital's psychiatric ward for criminals. He will undergo psychological evaluation to determine if he's mentally competent to stand trial.
Tarloff was arrested Saturday after investigators matched his palm prints with those at the bloody crime scene where Faughey was killed Tuesday evening. Police said he told investigators he had set out to rob a psychiatrist he said had institutionalized him 17 years ago, but ended up in Faughey's office.
Tarloff made incriminating statements during a 35-minute interrogation after he was taken into custody at 7:20 a.m. at his apartment, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. But Kelly declined to say Tarloff had confessed.
Police said it remained unclear why Tarloff would have attacked Faughey, who was slashed 15 times. Shinbach suffered serious injuries when he came to Faughey's aid, but survived the attack.
Kelly couldn't confirm whether Tarloff was ever Shinbach's patient, or whether he'd met Faughey.
Tarloff had been arrested earlier this month on charges of punching a security guard in the face after being asked to leave St. John's Episcopal Hospital in Queens, Kelly said. It wasn't clear why Tarloff had been at the hospital.
Police said they matched his prints from the Feb. 1 arrest with three found on a suitcasefilled with adult diapers and women's clothingleft near the basement door where the killer escaped. Also found was a smaller bag with rope, duct tape and knives not used in the attack, police said.
A next-door neighbor at Tarloff's building in Queens said Tarloff had been unemployed but did not cause any trouble.
"We were all shocked," said the neighbor, Stella Miscow. "We never expected that. He was quiet, you know what I mean?"
Tarloff is scheduled back in court in one week, so a judge can see the results of his mental evaluation.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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