Brooklyn Judge OKs Video In Reporter Slay Trial
NEW YORK (AP) -- A judge has ruled that a videotaped statement by the defendant can be presented in the trial of a New York City teen accused of fatally stabbing a radio newsman he met through a Craigslist sex ad.
Judge Jon Firetog made the ruling at a hearing in Brooklyn for John Katehis before jury selection begins.
The 18-year-old is charged with killing 47-year-old George Weber in Weber's Brooklyn apartment in March 2009.
Weber worked 12 years as an on-air reporter at WABC in New York. He also had worked at stations in California, Colorado and Pennsylvania.
His lawyer, Jeffrey Schwartz, had sought to have the evidence thrown out.
Katehis says on the tape that Weber was stabbed as the two struggled over a knife.
Firetog also said a written statement signed by Katehis and a witness who picked him out of a lineup and a photo array can be used at trial.
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