JEALOUS DR. KONIG: SHE GRABBED ME BY THE B*LLS

This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. We are in a verdict watch here at Crime Stories. That's right. The jealous Dr. Gerhard Koenig actually puts up a defense to beating his wife's head in with a rock. Wait for it. She grabbed me by the balls. That's his defense. Yes, that's his defense. I mean, it's he Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. The wife of a beloved doctor faces death at a sheer cliff's edge on a romantic getaway planned by hubby. Someone's currently being attacked on the top of Polly Tuga. The man trying to kill her. She's blood all over her face. I've never heard that defense before, except maybe as a joke. A jealous doctor overwhelmed because his wife sent flirty texts and that was it. Nothing more was proven in court. There he is. There they are. Guys, she's a nuclear engineer. She does not need a man telling her what to do. This guy, Dr. Gerhard Koenig, actually takes a stand and tells the jury with a straight face. Basically, as I was trying to push her off the cliff, she grabbed me by the balls. So I bashed her head in with a rock. Straight out to Susan Hendricks joining us, investigative reporter Susan Hendricks, also author of the bestseller Down the Hill, my descent into the double murders in Delphi, Susan, really? I've tried a lot of cases. You've covered a lot of cases. Have you ever heard she grabbed me by the balls as the defense because I have not. This is new. I have not and I have not seen someone nervy enough, you could say, Nancy, to take the stand in his own defense and describe this to jurors, thinking he's getting away with it. I want to go through. Oh, this this is excruciating. There you see wife, Ariel. She can barely walk. Look at the blood gushing down her face. Her skull actually bashed in by husband, Dr. Gearhart Koenig. Straight out to crime stories, investigative reporter, Sidney Silvani. Sidney. Wait, wait, wait. Now, let me understand. He's jealous over what? What he called an emotional affair. Ariel Koenig had some flirty text messages back and forth with a co-worker. They discussed music they enjoyed. They had lengthy conversations back and forth over text. And for this couple, that was described as an emotional affair. They started couples therapy because of Ariel's behavior. And Koenig wanted complete access to all of her communications at any time. Well, he sounds like a complete wackadoodle. Did I understand this? Josh Colesrew joining us veteran criminal defense attorney, former US attorney, founder of Colesrew Law Offices. Let me understand something. Since when did talking about music equal an emotional affair or an affair? Music really? What? He talked about the symphony and she gets bashed in the head with a rock. Well, you're right about one thing, Nancy, and that is this case will come down to credibility, the victim's credibility versus the defendant's credibility. And yes, she had an emotional affair by her own admission. And the husband wanted to know what was going on. But those aren't the only things that the jury is going to be looking at when determining whether or not she's credible. For example, you know, let's look at what her statements were during and around the time that this happened. You know, her statements became more severe, more dramatic and more incriminating. I mean, do you remember that the medical testimony in this case said there were only two to three impacts on her head from the Lava Rock, but she said only two or three impact blows to the skull. How many do you want Colesrew? Well, there is no there is no traumatic brain injury. There is no concussion. And she still tried to convince her primary care doctor to say that there was after this happened, probably knowing that it didn't happen because she had already been to the Queens hospital where that was never described in the diagnosis. Now, whenever you get hit in the head, it looks horrible because you have so many blood vessel where the skin is and that the tissue gets torn and it looks horrible, but the pictures look much, much worse than the actual injury. And let's not forget about the syringe. You remember that where she said that he tried to stab her with a clear barrel blue plunger hold still, but you know what? There was no syringe found, no vial, no cap, no bag, not by the hikers, not by the police, not by the crime scene. It only exists in her account. And then she says she bit and grabbed his testicles. I mean, there's no bite marks. There's no forensic evidence. There's no corroboration whatsoever. And don't forget her motive, right? She moved $123,000 from her account, from the joint account into her account right after this happened. And there was a life insurance policy on her husband that she was going to have a financial windfall if he was killed. So there is an alternative story that the prosecution has been unable to prove the entire case. Cole's rude. Are you claiming that there's no corroboration to her story? Is that what you're saying? I'm saying that her story has inconsistencies and holes, that the defense has blown wide open. Build a case on a certain stage. To me, it sounds like you're saying there's no corroboration. I heard you out. So now I want you to hear out the eyewitness to attempted murder on Ariel Koenig. Hi, I'm, I'm being attacked on the top of Polly Tuka. Where? There's a man trying to kill her. She's pulling all over her face. Where is it that Polly Tuka, the hike has to look out? Okay. So Polly look out. She's on the Polly Tuka hike and he's, he's currently attacking her. Okay. Where, where, how far is the hike? Are they in the entrance? Where? We're probably like five minutes into the hike. It really quick it. Okay. What are you seeing? We heard her screaming, help, help, help me help me. And then we saw that over her and then she crawled out with over her face saying that he's trying to kill her. Did she know him? I don't know. In fact, when two impartial observers hikers, two female hikers come upon the attempted murder scene, they take one look at Dr. Gearhart Koenig and they run because they were convinced he was going to try and kill them as well. So all of your back and forth, Josh Colesrew jumping on the defense bandwagon, trying to make Errol Koenig, the nuclear engineer look bad. I mean, the photos speak for themselves. Could I see the still photo of blood gushing down her face? That's what I want to see. You see her in this shape and you see him running and hiding unharmed in the woods, hiding out, trying to avoid police until he finally sneaks out and they nab him. But only after he confesses to his son, I tried to kill Erie, but she got away. To Susan Hendricks, joining me investigative journalist, Susan, help me out. Did you hear Colesrew? I did. Not only were there two eyewitnesses, Nancy, as you said, when he mentioned there wasn't that many direct hits on the head, her thumb was broken too. To me, that says you're trying to prevent the rock from hitting your head. And you're right. The son, who is the stepson of Errol on the stand, wouldn't even say dad, said, defend it. There are eyewitnesses, his own son and her injuries as we saw. OK. Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Colesrew, Colesrew, his own blood, biological son referred to his father as the defendant. Ouch. So, you know, let me address both the eyewitness situation and the son. OK. Now, with the son, you know, one of the most misunderstood things about criminal law is post incident conduct and both victims and other people who have experienced some type of trauma, they panic. Let me understand what you're saying, Josh, post incident conduct, you mean like him hiding in the woods from the police? No, he just got into a fight with his wife, where he says that his life was in danger and that he acted appropriately. And he said that when he, he testified that when he called his son, that his son misheard what he said, that he was just repeating what his wife had accused him of and when the nurses, OK, the nurses only came up and I believe them. OK. They only saw what happened from the middle to the end. You know what they didn't see? They didn't see a syringe, right? They didn't see any bag with medicine that he tried to stab her with and they didn't see the beginning on how the fight started. And that's the most important part of this case. How did this start? The only two people that know how this started are the husband and wife. So you have to look at the circumstantial evidence to see who it corroborates and who it doesn't and see where the chips lie. And that's how the jury is going to decide this case. Colesroot, isn't it true that Dr. Gerhard Koenig had the idea to take Ariel up that dangerous trail? Isn't that true? He's trying to win back his marriage. He knows that his wife isn't that true. She's in love with another man and he's trying to win his wife back. You won't answer because you don't like the answer. The answer is this whole thing was orchestrated by him. Are you married, Josh Colesroot? Are you? Yes, ma'am, happily. What did you do for your last anniversary? If anything, I took my wife on a nice trip to Cancun to the beach and made her feel like a queen. I'm sure you did. Did you suggest to her that she walk up a treacherous trail that has not one, not two, but multiple signs saying, go away, too dangerous for foot traffic. Don't come in here. She didn't want to go, but he insisted. Did you take a dangerous hike with your wife on your anniversary? That is a yes, no, Colesroot. I did the same thing as the doctor here, which is trying to win my wife's heart, even though I already have it. But I want to do some romantic. You're going to have to work a lot harder at it. Did you go on a hike up a dangerous trail? The answer I know is no. Be responsive. Both the doctor and I wanted to do something romantic with our wives. And we both attempted to do that. And the fact that if I had you on the stand, I would have you held in contempt right now. Sadly, all I can do is cut your mic. Yeah. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Straight out to special guests joining us, you know him. Well, John Bueller, who shot to fame, proving the Scott Peterson double murder case, former detective from Modesto PD, lead detective on the Peterson case. Why is it so many people don't want to admit the truth? When you put a doctor in front of a jury, they very often just fall in love because we're raised to trust doctors, believe doctors, look up to doctors think they know more than we do. That is not necessarily true. You know, this is Gerhard Koenig's second marriage. The first marriage was to a sex worker. I'm not judging. I'm not the church lady. I don't care what he does in his spare time, but I can't help but make the observation he wants women on a transactional basis. He wants a woman that he can force to behave a certain way. I think this is way over the line for some flirty text messages about the freaking symphony. That is not an emotional affair. That's BS, Bueller. Well, I got to go along with you on that. I do like Josh's take and he, you know, he makes a valiant attempt to try and convince me, but I got to say that the fact that the doctor went and hid in the woods that he resisted arrest, that he fled from the cops, that he made the call to his son. His son was convincing on the stand. He had a motive with receiving insurance policy or I think she had two hundred and fifty thousand that went to him if she went belly up. Things like this that that, you know, screams circumstantial evidence. He takes her on a hike. He researches up dangerous hiking areas and she's on the edge there. I have a much harder time to believe that she would bash him and drink it from the fire hydrant too much, too fast. Can you start over and speak very clearly, enunciate slowly? I want Coles to hear every word you brought up a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar life insurance policy. What policy is that, Bueller? I think it was some something where he would get two hundred and fifty thousand if she she passed away. I can't remember if it was an insurance policy or some death benefit or something like that. But he had motive when it came to trying to get revenge. He was angry, apparently, at this emotional affair. You throw in there a little bit of cash incentive and the fact that he would be free again. There's it's dripping with with pre-planning and pre-meditation. People say that, oh, you know, she she did this. Well, I've never seen a victim run from the cops. I've never seen a victim that has resisted arrest when they're trying to find out what's going on. He easily could have approached the nurses and said, no, she tried to kill me, but he never did any of those things. And that to me is is pretty telling when it comes to the fact that he was obviously involved in this up to his earlobes and he was trying to get out of a marriage. Bueller, see, you have a way of cutting through all the BS, just like you did in the Scott Peterson case. Lacey's body is found at the San Francisco Bay. He was fishing at the San Francisco Bay on the day she goes missing. Motive affair case closed. It's just so simple the way you explained it. Now, you know, what's interesting, Josh Colesroy, and I hope you were listening just then to John Bueller. And guys, as much as I'm arguing with Colesroy, he wins a lot of cases. He's a former U.S. attorney, so he knows the way prosecutors think. Now he's a veteran criminal defense attorney. So when you're talking about life insurance policies as a motive for murder, you only mentioned her $125,000 policy on him. Did you forget the 250,000 death benefit that he had for her? Oopsie. Well, don't forget the, I think it was $1.5 million policy that he took out on himself, making his wife the beneficiary. So his wife was going to receive a financial windfall and to Mr. Bueller's other comments about a resisting arrest and running, well, or not talking to the nurses. The nurses had already made up their mind about what had happened, right? And his wife was already screaming that he was trying to kill her. So he knew that he was a wanted man unjustly. And just like the movie, The Fugitive, he felt like the only way to preserve his life was to flee. He was in a panic mode. His wife had just tried to kill him and he protected him. And now you're actually comparing this to The Fugitive. Yes. Oh yes. This has definite parallels to that movie where Harrison Ford plays a movie and was innocent. He was an innocent man. Then why did he confess to his son? He didn't. He told the son on top of a mountain with a lot of wind, what his wife had accused him of, and his son misheard what he had said. Period. Okay, let's go back over what actually really happened, what really happened in the courtroom, not Josh Colesrode's defense version, what he wished had happened in the courtroom. To Susan Hendricks joining us, investigative journalist and best seller, Susan, what really happened in the courtroom? And let me be clear, Hendricks does not have a dog in the fight, no skin in the game, no money on the table. She's reporting what really happened. Okay. What did the son say? I went in with an open mind to Nancy. The son said that his father Face timed him and said, I tried to kill Ariel. To me, he spelled it out, confessed to his son, hangs up, his son calls Ariel's mom, his stepmom's mom, tells her, calls his biological mom, tells her. Then the dad calls back and says, Hey, wait a minute, did you tell anyone? And he said, Yeah, I told my mom and I told Ariel's mom. Then he tries to backtrack and act like he didn't say it. I believe this was planned out. I believe that he was controlling, stalking even. And I agree with you, Nancy. I don't think it was an emotional affair. It was very bland. Having coffee this morning. I think he was controlling and infuriated that he wasn't the center of her world and therefore tried to kill her. You know, it's interesting and I'm going to have to go to a shrink on this. Dr. Jerellon, other joining us, but let me address the facts first. I had, they call them office spouse. It was Aldyx and we did everything together when I wasn't with my investigator, Ernest. We went to the district attorney, the county work out room. Occasionally, that was very rare. We would eat 99 cents soup because that's all we could afford in the jury cafeteria where we were not supposed to be. He would help me if I was in a jamming court. That is not an emotional affair. I wouldn't even consider it. I don't understand how talking to a friend. How is that an emotional affair? I think the issue is spot on as far as control. Control is at the center of this. Also, it is a threat to his identity. When you talk with doctors and I can say this because I am one, there's something called like a God complex. Right? Like we are, we help people. We're not supposed to harm people. And I think what happened here is that his ego is very fragile. He felt very threatened by the work husband or work spouse. And even if there was an emotional affair, let's go along, let's go down that road. Does that justify what happened to this woman? She was bashed in the head with a brick. I don't care if it was one time, two times, three times or four times. And the other thing that's really bothering me is that's interpersonal violence. That's domestic violence. And yes, we don't know what she did to him, but we do know what we see. And it's clearly that he became unhinged. He was upset. He wasn't the center of her world. And he smashed her skull in essentially. We have we have the actual footage of it. So all of this, you know, trying to justify his behavior to me, it's a problem on so many scales because what he did was separate himself. You have the respected doctor. He can control that. Right? I'm a respected doctor. I help people. I'm an anesthesiologist. I'm in surgery. And then you have this whole other splitting, this whole other person because he's not the center, because he's not in control, because he has a fragile ego. He then decides to do this. He bashes his wife's skull. And so I just don't understand how we can sit here and try to try to justify that behavior at any level. And I want to be very clear, Dr. Jerellyn Utter, guys, I didn't formally introduce her. Dr. Utter is a clinical psychologist who specializes in psychological evaluations and risk assessments of people in the criminal justice system. Translation, bad guys. Author of mainlining Philly, author of After Shot, How Past Events Shake Up Your Life Today, producer of Utter Nonsense, a documentary exploring addiction and mental illness. By the way, you can find her at DrJerellynUter.com. Dr. Jerellyn, I want to be clear. Revenge is not a defense under the law. If you are angry and impassioned at the moment of the attack, you might get a voluntary manslaughter. But revenge about something that happened months and months ago, that is not a defense. You're completely correct. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. I want to clear up something to Susan Hendricks, investigative journalist and bestselling author, The Money. The Money, because Josh Colesrew spun it out. He's like Rumpelstiltskin. He takes some damp, moldy hay and spins it out into defense gold. Tell me who had a policy on who. So they had policies on each other. And you're right. With the 225,125,000, he had more to gain financially. And by the way, he was a meticulous record keeper. And before the alleged attempted murder, he was looking at his divorce filings. How much money he had given the first wife, what he had to pay for. Was this a burying him? Was this fueling the fire, so to speak? I believe so, that the money was at the brute of this. Use the emotional affair, if you will, to kind of hide his greed and control. Susan Hendricks, how many times during all of our years at HLN did I text you about topics not related to court, about a million? How's your family, blah, blah, blah, happy Easter? We're not having an emotional affair, not that I know of, are we? No. And by the way, she was working remotely. From home. I did not take that into account. I'm so glad you told me that. OK, straight out to Todd Barr, Dr. Todd Barr, forensic pathologist, deputy corner, Franklin County Corners, Columbus, Ohio, featured in thin places, essays from in between. Dr. Barr, thank you for being with us. Could you explain to Josh Colesrude the injury suffered by Ariel Koenig? Hi, Nancy. So what I read about her injuries sort of line up with what Coles said. Complex scalp lacerations do look a lot worse than they are. We all know that when you get a head injury, they bleed like stink. Then this is not this is not to justify what he did to her. It sounds suspicious to me all the way around. The circumstances do not line up. She didn't run away. He did run away. I mean, there's certain things. Now, as far as bashing her skull in, it is my understanding that she did not have any skull fractures. She was evaluated overnight and didn't have any evidence of a traumatic brain injury or a concussion. However, traumatic brain injuries don't always result in unconsciousness. You can have a traumatic brain injury that lingers. That comes on later. That has residual effect. You can see in the in the video of her being tended to by these two women. She's clearly disoriented and not steady on her feet. So something's wrong. She got her her bell rung. And so, you know, as far as the injuries go, it doesn't sound like they were as extensive as as maybe what it looks like or appears to be on the video. However, that doesn't excuse what he did and the injuries that she suffered as a result of that. I have a question. Um, the testimony is that Ariel Koenig suffered severe lacerations stayed overnight in the hospital. She had stitches in her scalp. She still has scars on her head and her face. In court, she pulled back the bangs covering the left side of her forehead. Right here to reveal a patch of scalp that will never grow hair again because of these severe lacerations. Correct. Okay. That's true. You stated that you observed her being unsteady on her feet and disoriented. What would cause those symptoms? Well, being having a rock blown against your head would definitely cause you to be a little unsteady on your feet, depending on how many times or how hard, you know, obviously she, as was mentioned previously, she did suffer a broken thumb, which indicates to me that she was probably trying to block the blows to her head. And so she suffered additional injuries to her hand. So it sounds like it was a pretty traumatic event. And those kind of blows that would cause these kind of complex lacerations are different than just a straight laceration. A straight laceration is just like a cut on the surface of the skin. A complex laceration is one that the skin is splitting in multiple different directions. And the only way to bring the skin back together is to stitch it up. And so she suffered from extensive scarring that would prevent her from growing hair in that area. And that's, that's, that's a common problem in areas that grow hair that, that end up scarring down. Dr. Todd Barr, you stated that she, Aril Koenig, seemed unsteady on her feet and was disoriented due to blows to the head. Is that correct? Did you state that? Yes, I did. Okay. How severe does a blow to the head have to be to make you dizzy, unsteady on your feet and disoriented? A simple laceration cut wouldn't do that. So what causes a human being to become unsteady and disoriented can't stand up. So there's a thing called coup and contra coup injuries that occur inside the brain. I know this is probably getting a little deep into it, but when the brain is inside. We deal with it all the time in child abuse cases, coup contra coup. Correct. And so just because she doesn't have a skull fracture, doesn't mean that her brain wasn't rattled around inside this fixed object called the skull. And that can cause contusions on the brain. And that can cause disorientation. It can cause confusion. It can cause concussive effects. Those are the kind of things that we see in the coup contra coup kind of injuries that she would have possibly had happened to her as a result of the blows to the head. A coup contra coup injury is when the head is shaken and the brain actually hits the skull. Is that correct? Yes. So is it your deduction? That may have happened to her. Correct. She was, she was clearly not steady on her feet. I mean, anybody that watches that video can see that. So the blows to her head, Josh Colesroad, were severe enough to cause coup contra coup injuries to the brain. You have stated correctly that her actual skull was not shattered, but her brain received an injury severe enough to make her disoriented and unable to walk on her feet. Did you hear what Dr. Barr said? When in comparison, Dr. Gerhard Koenig runs from the scene indicating guilt, hides in the woods and calls his son and says, I just tried to kill Ari, but she got away. He immediately repeats that conversation to not one but two people. Well, just like a prosecutor, you didn't ask the doctor whether or not her injuries were consistent with what she said happened, which was eight to 10 blows with a rock to the head. And if, well, that's asking. Is that consistent? Dr. Barr, are her injuries consistent with eight to 10? Are her injuries consistent with eight to 10 blows to the head? From what I read, it appeared that they noted two to three complex lacerations, which would be consistent with two to three blows to the head. Now, I don't know where the eight to 10 blows comes from. One blow to the head would be sufficient to cause injury to the brain. Two or three. Can there be a blow to the head without a laceration resulting? Sure. Shaken baby syndrome is a perfect example where a baby is not getting a blow to the head, but just the sheer weight of the head being tossed back and forth is enough to jostle the brain inside creating injury. Again, we are in a verdict watch here at Crime Stories as we wait for a jury to hand down a verdict in the attempted murder trial of Dr. Gearhart Koenig. But now we remember an American hero. C.O. Mark Fisher, Federal Bureau of Prisons, killed in the line of duty after 23 years, leaving behind a wife, turned widow, Tammy, and two children. American hero. C.O. Mark Fisher. Nancy Grace, signing off. Goodbye, friend.