CATSKILL, NY (Times Union) — The legal team for convicted murderer Carrie Weiser continued to argue for a reduced sentence Thursday under a 2019 state law that gives leniency to defendants who have suffered domestic abuse. But the presiding judge appeared to question whether the law applied to the case.
Weiser was convicted by a Greene County jury in June of second-degree murder in the 2021 stabbing death of Scott Myers after the two walked to Myers’ Catskill apartment from a nearby bar. Weiser’s defense team, led by Albany attorney Danielle Neroni, argued that Myers drugged Weiser’s drink at the apartment and tried to rape her before she stabbed him. Weiser, who called the police after the stabbing saying Myers slit his wrists, has said she has no memory of the stabbing.
Neroni wants Weiser’s sentence to be limited under the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act. The law applies when “the defendant was a victim of domestic violence subjected to substantial physical, sexual or psychological abuse inflicted by a member of the same family or household as the defendant.” The abuse must be “a significant contributing factor to the defendant’s criminal behavior.” The abuser does not have to be the victim of the defendant’s crime.
On the first day of the sentencing hearing late last month, Neroni called forensic psychologist Jacqueline Bashkoff, who interviewed Weiser shortly after the stabbing to see if she was competent to stand trial, and twice after she was convicted. Bashkoff has done more than 2,000 evaluations for court proceedings, according to her website, and said in court she had done eight evaluations about the 2019 law, seven of which were successful.
Weiser’s father was psychologically abusive towards Weiser’s mother, Bashkoff testified, and she was molested by a large group of 12-year-old boys outside a synagogue when she was 10.
A dentist also used dental tools on Weiser’s genitals when she was a child, Bashkoff testified, and Weiser was also allegedly raped twice by her landlord’s cousin in 2014.
During the second day of the hearing on Thursday, Greene County Court Judge Charles M. Tailleur directly questioned Bashkoff about the trauma Weiser had suffered and how the 2019 law could apply, asking her if she believed Weiser felt threatened in the presence of men.
That was Weiser’s perspective, Bashkoff responded, saying it was “part of her.”
Bashkoff earlier testified Weiser had told her that “all men are rapists.”
Tailleur then asked if any other factors could have influenced Weiser the night she stabbed Myers.
Bashkoff said Weiser’s diagnosis of paranoid personality disorder could have influenced her, as well as her intoxication that night. Though Weiser drank at the bar and Myers’ home, Bashkoff said she appeared not to be solely under the influence of alcohol, referencing the defense’s argument that Weiser was drugged.
In footage police obtained from Myers’ security cameras, he can be seen putting something in Weiser’s drink while she was in the bathroom.
Tailleur then said that for the law to apply, the abuse has to come from “members of the same family or household.” Many parties can fall under this definition, but it generally applies to current or former romantic or sexual partners or relatives.
Though Weiser’s father psychologically abused her mother, Bashkoff testified there was no physical or sexual abuse directed at the young Weiser.
Tailleur also referred to the two alleged rapes by Weiser’s landlord’s cousin. Bashkoff testified Weiser’s landlord had sex with her so roughly that she “bled for a week,” but that it was consensual; the landlord’s cousin later allegedly raped her. Though she lived with her landlord, Tailleur said in court that she “was not renting a room from her rapist.”
When asked how the rapes fit within the law, Bashkoff replied that “trauma is cumulative — the body keeps score,” referencing the title of a 2015 best-selling book on trauma.
Matthew Winchell, a defense attorney at Tully Rinckey’s Rochester office who is unaffiliated with the case, said the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act was used by defense attorneys “whenever you can apply it.”
