On June 2 of last year, 24-year old Blazej Kot led New York police on a chase from Taughannock Falls State Park to nearby Ulysses where he drove his car off the road and slammed into a tree. After being forcibly restrained by police, Kot was airlifted to a local hospital where his self-inflicted neck wound was treated. When police attempted to search Kot's nearby apartment, they found that was on fire. After firefighters contained the blaze, police began searching for evidence that had not been destroyed by the fire. Nine hours later, the body of Kot's wife, Caroline Coffey, was found in a wooded area near Ithaca. Coffey, a 26-year old post-doctoral student and researcher at Cornell University, had apparently bled to death after sustaining a severe neck wound. Murder and arson charges were laid against her husband.
Originally from New Zealand, Blazej Kot had been a student at Cornell University and married Coffey the previous May. According to testimony provided by psychiatrists for the defense and prosecution, Kot began experiencing paranoid delusions that he was being tested by "unseen forces" and that his wife had been replaced by a duplicate. Although he has no history of violence or mental illness, his attorney has argued that Kot had developed delusions as a result of taking the anti-malarial drug chloroquine. Psychiatrists for the prosecution have dismissed the chloroquine claim arguing that cases of neurological complications from the drug are rare. Although cases of murder and murder/suicide have been associated with other anti-malarial drugs such as mefloquine, prosecution attorneys have accused Kot's lawyer, Joe Joch, of engaging in "trial by ambush" in introducing evidence without full disclosure first. They argue that Kot had killed his wife due to his own dissatisfaction with the relationship and that he was guilty of premeditated murder.
Closing arguments in the case are expected next week.
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