Psychiatrist who plotted botched killing of her child’s father sentenced to 11 years

A Manhattan, New York psychiatrist who plotted the botched killing of her child’s father in 2012 has been sentenced to 11 years in prison despite trying on Tuesday, October 11, to rescind her guilty plea.

Pamela Buchbinder, 52, failed to convince the court to permit her to fire her lawyer and retract an admission last month that she enlisted her relative to murder Michael Weiss in November 2012.

Buchbinder, charged in 2017, told Judge Thomas Farber on September 7 that she wanted her teen cousin to inflict severe injuries when he ambushed Weiss inside his home office.

Weiss, who is also a psychiatrist, addressed the court at sentencing. He described how he still had post-traumatic stress disorder almost a decade later.

“I still find it difficult to understand how any of this could have happened, and I struggle to comprehend the type of hatred that would lead someone to plan such a deliberate, personal and brutal attack. An attack that not only harmed me, but that continues to have lasting repercussions for my son, as well as the rest of my family,” said Weiss.

“I am grateful that Pamela Buchbinder will not be a direct physical threat to me or my family for the next [several] years, but I also fear for the safety of myself, my wife, and son when she is eventually released.”

Jacob Nolan, Buchbinder’s 19-year-old cousin at the time of the attack, in 2016 received 9½ years in state prison for his role in the attempted killing.

Buchbinder went with him to purchase the sledgehammer from a Home Depot the night before the bloody assault.

Nolan walked into Weiss’ building the next day armed with a 10-pound hammer and a knife. Weiss escaped the grisly attack with his life when he wrestled the knife away from Nolan.

Weiss asked the court to ensure Buchninder would never see him or their young son again.

“Although I have not spoken to Pamela in years, I continue to believe that she would do anything in her power to harm me, regardless of the consequences, and regardless of the collateral damage she inflicts,” he said.

“I believe that her hatred for me is now, as her hatred was for me then, relentless, without remorse, and violent.”