Gigi Jordan Friend: Woman Talked About Killing Herself, Son
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The longtime best friend of a former pharmaceutical millionaire accused of murdering her autistic son told jurors Wednesday that the woman talked about killing herself and her child years before she poisoned the boy to death.
Rita Cristman tesified that Gigi Jordan told her if a stem cell transplant she was setting up to cure Jude Mirra of his autism did not work, she was going to end it all for both of them, WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reported.
The witness also described a telephone conversation in 2006 in which Jordan blamed Cristman for her misery because her friend told her to have a baby in the first place.
Jordan is on trial, accused of killing 8-year-old Jude with a mixture of prescription drugs in February 2010 at the Peninsula Hotel in Midtown.
Jordan admitted on the witness stand earlier this month that she gave her son a fatal dose of drugs. But she denied the scenario prosecutors have painted: that she climbed on top of the comatose boy, forcibly opened his mouth and shoved a lethal dose of prescription medication down his throat with a syringe.
Jordan's lawyers say she was convinced her mob-connected ex-husband was going to kill her, leaving the child's biological father – who she claims sexually abused the boy — to care for him. In her mind, her son would be better off dead, the lawyer said.
Despite that Jude was nonverbal, Jordan testified that the boy learned to communicate with her by typing on a laptop computer and BlackBerry. That was how, she said, he told her about abuse he endured with bizarre satanic elements – from being forced to drink blood and kill animals to being zapped with electricity.
Cristman testified that she saw no hint of sexual abuse.
The father denies the allegations of abuse and has never been charged. Her ex-husband has denied all her allegations and has sued her for slander.
Prosecutors say that whatever her worries, they didn't justify killing the boy.
Trained as a nurse, Jordan went on to launch companies that administer drugs to patients in their home. After making an estimated $40 million, she left her career to travel the country seeking medical answers for her son.
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