Accused wife killer bragged about martial arts death grip: pals
By Rebecca Rosenberg February 28, 2019 | 7:35pm | Updated
Witness Morey Wildes Steven Hirsch
The cunning cad accused of killing his estranged wife bragged about his martial arts death grip to pals, according to testimony Thursday at his Manhattan murder trial.
During a night out with friends from his synagogue in 2006, Rod Covlin boasted of his mastery of a lethal hold, witness Morey Wildes testified.
“I remember Rod telling me that he could kill either me or someone else. He said, ‘I could kill you with one hand in a way that no one would ever find out,” Wildes told jurors.
Covlin is accused of snapping the neck of his wife, Shele Danishevsky, with a martial arts chokehold. The couple was in the midst of nasty divorce and custody battle.
Prosecutors contend that Covlin, a failed stockbroker with dual backgammon and philandering addictions, wanted to score her $5.2 million fortune.
Another friend, Jeffrey Buller, told jurors that he was on the subway with Covlin when he made a similar boast.
“He indicated that he had the ability to hurt someone by bending his hand with his fingers like this … his two fingers shaped like a “C” in a horizontal position,” Buller recalled. “I wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not, I didn’t take it seriously, because guys night out, you talk big, it doesn’t matter.”
Danishefsky was found dead face down in the tub of her luxury Upper West Side apartment on New Year’s Eve 2009.
Lawyers for Covlin have argued that Danishefsky’s death was nothing more than a tragic accident.
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