The mother-of-three pleaded not guilty to murdering Robert Kissel, a senior investment banker at Merrill Lynch, after prosecutors rejected her offer to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Kissel was convicted of drugging her husband with a sedative-laced strawberry drink before beating him to death with a lead ornament. She always maintained she acted in self defence against an abusive, drug-addicted spouse.
She was handed a life sentence in 2005 but Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal overturned the conviction last February, citing legal errors at her first trial, and ordered a fresh hearing.
On Tuesday, prosecutor David Perry told the nine member jury that Robert Kissel had a cocktail of drugs in his system and was lying face down during the attack at the couple's luxury apartment.
"The defendant killed her husband by smashing his skull with at least five separate blows -- any one of those blows could have proved fatal," Perry added.
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