NYC Psychiatrist Pam Buchbinder Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Murder Plot

October 14, 2022

A Manhattan psychiatrist was sentenced to 11 years in prison Tuesday for her role in the grisly sledgehammer attack of her baby daddy nearly a decade ago.

Pamela Buchbinder, 52, finally learned her fate in the sensational 2012 love-gone-wrong case — despite a last-ditch, unhinged effort to reverse her guilty plea.

The disgraced psychiatrist admitted last month to being involved in the attempted murder scheme on her ex-lover and fellow shrink, Dr. Michael Weiss.

But during her sentencing in Manhattan Supreme Court, Buchbinder suddenly tried to withdraw her plea and fire her lawyers after claiming she hadn’t taken her meds on the day she agreed to the deal.

She also tried to insist she was high off second-hand smoke that day because people in the holding facility had been smoking synthetic marijuana near her.

A furious Justice Thomas Farber quickly rejected her motion, saying Buchbinder “appeared perfectly fine and perfectly coherent” when she agreed to the plea deal.

Buchbinder pleaded guilty Sept. 7 to first-degree attempted assault and burglary over the Nov. 12, 2012, hit on Weiss. As part of her deal, she dodged an attempted murder charge that could have landed her up to 25 years in jail if she was convicted at trial.

Dr. Michael Weiss survived the attack in which he was repeatedly bludgeoned and stabbed all over his body.

Weiss, in a victim impact statement on Tuesday, told the court he was grateful to avoid a trial — but that he feared the day Buchbinder would be eventually released.

“I continue to believe she will do anything in her power to harm me, regardless of the consequences, regardless of any damage that she has caused,” a soft-spoken Weiss said.

“I am grateful to have survived the attack to be standing here today. I’m grateful this matter is being resolved with a plea deal and avoid a trial,” he added.

Prosecutors said Buchbinder had manipulated her younger, bipolar cousin, Jacob Nolan, into carrying out the attack — and even took him to a Home Depot to buy a 10-pound sledgehammer the night before the attack.

She also gave Nolan a knife and a hand-drawn map with directions on how to get into Weiss’ home office on West 57th Street, prosecutors said.

Weiss was repeatedly bludgeoned and stabbed all over his body in the sick attack — but miraculously survived.

Prosecutors said Buchbinder had hatched the plot after arguing with her baby daddy over the visitation of their then-6-year-old son. Weiss gained full custody of their son in the wake of the grisly attack.

Buchbinder had also convinced her former partner to name her as a beneficiary on his $1.5 million life insurance policy in the days leading up to the attack, according to prosecutors.

“I think it’s necessary to make the record straight to tell the truth about what really happened in this case and the great evil of this crime,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann said at the sentencing hearing.

“The defendant tried to have Michael Weiss murdered. She stood to control $1.5 million of life insurance of his life in the name of his son. She wanted sole custody.”

Buchbinder, who was arrested in 2017 and has been in custody ever since, spoke briefly during the hearing, saying: “I am so sorry that we are all here today. If there was one true statement Mr. Seidemann said, I missed it.”

Buchbinder’s cousin is serving a 9 1/2 year sentence after being convicted of attempted murder in 2016.

Source: Elizabeth Rosner and Emily Crane, “NYC psychiatrist sentenced in baby daddy’s sledgehammer attack —despite desperate attempt to withdraw plea,” New York post, Oct. 11, 2022, URL: https://nypost.com/2022/10/11/nyc-psychiatrist-sentenced-to-11-years-in-baby-daddys-sledgehammer-attack/

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