A Merrill Lynch investment banker was slain by his unfaithful wife in an act of cold-blooded premeditation, a prosecutor told the High Court Tuesday as opening arguments began in the murder trial of Nancy Kissel.

Acting for personal gain, she drugged Robert Kissel's milkshake with sedatives, dealt a series of fatal blows to the right side of his head with a heavy metal ornament, and then attempted a cover-up in the days following his death on November 2, 2003, the High Court heard.

Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Peter Chapman opened the trial of Kissel, 40, to the seven-member jury, outlining the deterioration of the couple's marriage, her infidelity, and the breakdown of trust between the two. In the months leading up to the discovery of the banker's body near their luxurious Park View residence in Tai Tam, he had placed his wife under surveillance and friends and family were aware of their troubles, Chapman said.

The death of the prominent American banker, who held top positions at both Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch during his six years in Hong Kong, and the subsequent indictment of his wife for his murder, shocked the territory's expatriate and banking community.

The two sweethearts married in the United States in 1989 and arrived here in 1997 with their three children.

Nancy Kissel worked as a volunteer at their school, Hong Kong International School.

But the happy scene was, as she told a friend in an e-mail, a sham masquerading as "the best marriage in the universe.''

Instead, according to the prosecutor, she embarked on an affair with a television repairman in the United States, while her husband was working in Hong Kong in the midst of the SARS outbreak.

In order to convince the jury of the defendant's guilt, Chapman will present intimate love letters and e-mails between Nancy Kissel and her alleged lover as evidence. Photographs and surveillance video recordings of the two illicit lovers, made by a private detective, will also be introduced along with statements from friends, family, neighbors, domestic helpers and Merrill Lynch office staff who may have witnessed the marital deterioration.

Correspondence between Robert Kissel and the law firm of Hampton, Winter and Glynn will also be used to try and prove that he was discussing divorce and custody arrangements for their children.

Chapman will also try to demonstrate that Nancy Kissel was the primary beneficiary of her husband's will and life insurance policies.

The deceased held two life insurance policies in Hong Kong worth a total of US$1.75 million (HK$13.7 million) as well as a personal insurance policy from the United States with a face value of about US$5 million.

There was a lot at stake. In 2003, the banker's annual income was US$175,000 not including the US$5.9 million he had amassed in bonuses in his three years with Merrill Lynch.

``The marriage was apparently a stable one,'' said Chapman, until 2002, when Robert Kissel's sister, Jane Clayton, noticed her sister-in-law had become distant during a family skiing trip.

According to e-mail correspondence, Nancy Kissel's long-time friend, Bryna O'Shea, also thought she no longer talked about her husband during their conversations.

In January 2003, without his wife's knowledge, the banker installed ``E-Blaster'' spyware software in her Sony Vaio laptop computer that tracked her e-mails and sent reports to a Hotmail account read by himself.

According to Chapman, Nancy Kissel began her affair with TV repairman Michael del Priore while she and her children were in Vermont evading the SARS outbreak.

Robert Kissel remained in Hong Kong to continue his work and he hired a New York private investigation company, Alpha Group, to spy on his wife and confirm her infidelity.

The surveillance reports, photographs and video recordings will be used as evidence. He also discovered love letters from del Priore in which he had said to Nancy, ``I love it when you call my name, it makes me melt.''

By July 28, the banker contacted Sharon Ser, a senior partner at Hampton, Winter and Glynn, to inquire about divorce proceedings, and custody of their children.

By late September, he had twice told the New York private investigator that he feared for his safety and suspected his wife of trying to poison him.

The investigator advised him to report to the police with blood and urine samples. ``Robert Kissel, unfortunately, did not heed that advice,'' said Chapman, because he felt guilty for suspecting his wife.

In late October, he e-mailed his brother, Andrew Kissel, and a friend about his intention to talk about divorce with his wife on November 2 - the same day prosecutors say he died.

On November 3, his wife e-mailed a friend she was supposed to meet for coffee, saying, ``My husband's not well, I need to take care of things.''

Chapman said, ``By this time, [Robert Kissel] was far from unwell.'' He was dead.

Chapman will try and show that the banker was murdered the day before.

Robert Kissel, 40, was a former Asia-Pacific managing director of Merrill Lynch's Global Principal Investment. He was hired from Goldman Sachs Group in 2000 to head the US investment bank's distressed assets business in Asia outside Japan.

Chapman will finish his opening remarks today and the prosecution case is expected to last five to six weeks. The trial is expected to end in mid-August.

albert.wong@singtaonewscorp.com