Nancy Kissel walks out of Hong Kong's High Court in 2005. AP

The case of Nancy Kissel's murder of her husband Robert Kissel is one of the most sensational trials in Hong Kong's criminal history.

The three-month trial made news headlines from June to September 2005.

American true-crime writer Joe McGinniss even wrote a book on the case last year.

Michigan-born Nancy Kissel had the perfect family that any woman could only dream of: a husband who was a millionaire and an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, three lovely children, and a luxurious apartment.

But the perfect family fell apart when she fed her husband a milkshake laced with drugs and bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003.

She was arrested five days later.

He had 10 lacerations to his head, including five fractures.

The couple got married in 1989 in the US and later moved to Hong Kong.

The marriage turned from love to one of betrayal and abuse.

In the early stage of the trial, the identity of Nancy Kissel's lover, TV-repairman Michael Del Priore from Vermont, US was exposed.

Apart from the affair, the prosecution also pointed out that Nancy Kissel would get her husband's $18 million estate after his death.

The case had its twists and turns. The defense later displayed evidence in court that Robert Kissel had searched on gay porn websites.

Nancy Kissel defended that she had been physically and sexually abused by her husband, who had also threatened to kill her with a baseball bat.

During the trial, prosecutor Peter Chapman accused Kissel of killing her husband in a cold-blooded manner so that she could be with her lover.

When Chapman cross-examined Kissel, then 41, she admitted to killing her husband.

She broke down in court, screaming: "I still love my husband".

On September 1 2005, she was sentenced to life imprisonment.

She has been serving her sentence at a prison in Tai Lam since 2006.

The guardianship of Kissels' children had been given to the banker's sister in October the same year.

Nancy Kissel's mother has been helping her daughter launch appeal against the conviction.

(HK Edition 10/07/2008 page1)