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Crime & Safety

Lawyer: Admission of Videotaped Confession Won't Affect Defense

Insanity plea planned for ex-Nassau County Corrections Officer who killed ex-girlfriend outside Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow

The lawyer for Kim Wolfe, the former Nassau County Corrections officer who fatally shot her former lover and her uncle, in addition to shooting her grandfather and kidnapping her niece, says that the recent decision to admit his client's videotaped confession into evidence will not harm his planned insanity defense.

Police videotaped Wolfe's confession while she was in custody and after she had spoke extensively to a detective, hours after the June 16 incident last year.

"The judge's decision to admit the videotaped confession was correct but it's also irrelevant," said Michael DerGarabedian, Wolfe's defense lawyer. "That tape will not affect the defense. She sat there emotionless for an hour and a half. Anyone with common sense will understand that she didn't appreciate the consequences of her actions."

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On Dec. 22, a State Supreme Court Justice in Mineola ruled that Wolfe, 43, of North Babylon, was "coherent, calm and detailed" in her account of the day's events. At the same time, the judge also ruled that police had "ample probable cause" to arrest Wolfe, based on eyewitness accounts of the shootings of her relatives. Further, the judge also determined that the seizure of a 9-mm handgun from Wolfe's lap during her arrest did not violate her rights.

Police accounts of the bizarre June 16 incident say that Wolfe had been trying to reconcile with her ex-girlfriend, Stacie Williams, 45, a nurse's aide who worked in the maternity ward at in East Meadow when the two argued and Wolfe reportedly shot Williams several times in the chest, killing her.

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Then, according to police, Wolfe sped to a nearby relatives' home in South Hempstead where she fatally shot her 56-year-old uncle, Marshall Williams, Jr.; wounded her 88-year-old grandfather, Marshall Williams and then kidnapped her niece as she drove her Mitsubishi SUV bound for Atlantic City, NJ. Both William's men were unrelated to Wolfe's ex-girlfriend Stacie Williams.

Wolfe eventually surrendered to police later that morning with the assistance of a Hempstead Police Officer who had training as a hostage negotiator. Wolfe's niece was returned unharmed.

Anthony Smalls, a cousin of Stacie Williams, said he had no problem with Wolfe's confession being admitted as evidence but he expressed concern that the confession might be misconstrued by the court.

"My main concern is that her confession is not accepted as some form of plea bargain…no way should her guilty plea get her less time than deserved," Smalls said, in an emailed statement. "She killed people, kidnapped someone, and was ruthless. If 25 to life is the max, surely, if anybody deserves the max, she does."

DerGarabedian, who admits that a plea of "temporary insanity" would be highly likely in this case, says that the very fact that Wolfe attacked her own relatives as well only helps to bolster his defense. "In this case, you might have expected Wolfe to attack only the relatives of her ex-girlfriend, Stacie Williams. But she didn't. She went after her own relatives as well," DerGarabedian said. "That fact only helps to underscore her [Wolfe's] extreme state of mental duress."

Wolfe pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, first-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

The case goes to conference on Jan. 12.

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