LAWRENCE, Mass. (Court TV) — Contradicting a defense expert who said Dr. Richard Sharpe was insane at the time he killed his estranged wife, a prosecution psychiatrist testified Tuesday that the transvestite dermatologist's behavior was "threatening, intimidating, but not psychotic."

Dr. Malcolm Rogers, the final witness in the millionaire physician's first-degree murder trial, told jurors that Sharpe was not suffering from any serious mental illness that would prevent him from telling right from wrong when he went to Karen Sharpe's home and fired a single shotgun blast into her chest.

Rogers

"In my opinion, the defendant was not in a psychotic state at the time of the incident," Rogers said, referring to the opinion of defense psychiatrist Keith Ablow, who testified Monday. He added that Sharpe's stealthy theft of a gun hours before the crime, disposal of the murder weapon moments after and flight to New Hampshire indicated his consciousness of guilt.

"These actions indicate to me he had the capacity to appreciate wrong from right," said Rogers.

He also lent support to the prosecution's claim that Sharpe, a successful businessman and recreational cross-dresser, murdered his wife of 26 years because she was leaving him and taking much of his fortune. The expert described Sharpe as a narcissistic person who used violence and verbal abuse to control his wife.

At the time of the shooting, Rogers said, "he felt he was entitled to the relationship, entitled to have her back."

On cross-examination, Rogers admitted he gave little weight to Sharpe's abusive childhood in forming his opinion. Sharpe and his siblings had testified that their father was verbally and occasionally physically abusive, and Ablow had described that abuse as the key to Sharpe's adult behavior, which he said was marked by mental illness.

Defense lawyer Joseph Balliro Sr. pressed Rogers, asking, "In your professional opinion whether or not someone lacks criminal responsibility at a later time in life has nothing at all to do with whatever trauma that person may have experienced as a youngster?"

"Basically, I think that is true," said Rogers.

The psychiatrist also brushed off defense suggestions that Sharpe's cross-dressing indicated mental illness.

"It is a choice, maybe an eccentric choice for an individual to make, but in and of itself, it is harmless," he said.

Rogers was the sole witness Tuesday and his slow, repetitive testimony had several jurors fidgeting. Court will break for the Thanksgiving holiday, resuming Monday for closing arguments. If the panel rejects Sharpe's insanity defense, he faces life in prison. The doctor admits killing his wife July 14, 2000, in front of three witnesses, but maintains that his abusive childhood rendered him so mentally disturbed that he did not realize what he was doing.

Shannon Sharpe

The eldest of the Sharpe's three children, 28-year-old Shannon, was in the courtroom for the first time Tuesday, sitting between her mother's brother and sister. In court papers filed in probate court, Shannon Sharpe described her father as a brute who beat and poisoned her and her mother and stole their underwear to indulge in his gender-bending fantasies. Prosecutor Robert Weiner considered calling her as a witness but ultimately decided against it.

In a development outside court, Karen Sharpe's estate filed suit against the man from whom Richard Sharpe says he stole the murder weapon. According to the suit, the estate hopes to recover more than $2 million from Alden Tarr Jr. and his parents, Alden Sr. and Priscilla Tarr, who own the Gloucester home where their son's gun collection was stored.

The gun used against Karen Sharpe remains a mystery. Tarr says the gun Sharpe stole from his home was a .30-caliber moose-hunting rifle, but a ballistics expert testified that the victim was killed with a .22-caliber gun. Sharpe, who says he does not know enough about guns to distinguish between calibers, testified the stolen gun was the one used in the killing, but prosecutors suggested Monday that he may have tried to make the crime look spontaneous by stealing the gun hours before the murder but then using another weapon.