Trial Underway For WABC Newsman's Craigslist Killer

18-year-old John Katehis is back in Brooklyn Supreme Court today, supposedly laughing off charges of brutally killing WABC radioman George Weber last year after an S&M Craigslist rendezvous turned ugly. In his opening statements yesterday, Katehis' lawyer called the 47-year-old victim a "drunk predator" who lured the teen to his Carroll Gardens home by offering to trade $60, liquor, and drugs for kinky sex.

According to reports, Katehis was snickering in the courtroom today while prosecutors showed jurors a 45-minute videotaped confession in which he described killing Weber after an S&M bondage encounter went south. According to the Post, Katehis (who was apparently laughing in the video, too) "noshed on a donut" while recounting how Weber -- whom he'd met on Craigslist -- wanted his hands and feet bound and asked the teen to "smother" him.

Jeffrey Schwartz, Katehis' lawyer, is arguing that his client killed Weber in self-defense after Weber (while "lying on his stomach with his ankles bound with duck tape") pulled out a knife. The weapon, Schwartz said, spooked his client and led to a struggle where at some point, "George Weber gets stabbed in the throat."

The Daily News reports that in his confession, Katehis says he was under the influence of cocaine and only remembers stabbing Weber once, but prosecutors say the city medical examiner found Weber had been stabbed 50 times and that investigators found no trace of drugs in Weber's apartment.

Prosecutors also say that once he was done killing Weber, Katehis "rummaged" through his pockets and took the $60.

[shernandez@villagevoice.com]