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Jury Selection Starts In NYC Therapist Killing

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A schizophrenic man is on trial on charges of murdering a psychotherapist with a meat cleaver in her Upper East Side office.

Jury selection began Monday.

It's prosecutors' second effort at trying David Tarloff. Jury selection got under way in 2010, but then Tarloff began behaving strangely and was declared unfit for court.

Tarloff's lawyers don't dispute that he killed Kathryn Faughey in 2008, but they argue that his schizophrenia made him unable to understand that what he was doing was wrong.

Prosecutors and Faughey's family say Tarloff carried out a considered, criminal plan.

Tarloff has said he aimed to rob Faughey's office mate Dr. Kent Shinbach to get money to whisk his mother out of a nursing home and escape with her to Hawaii.

Police said Faughey was hacked 15 times with a meat cleaver when she walked in on the robbery. Shinbach was seriously wounded when he tried to save Faughey.

Jury selection is expected to take about a week.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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