#Rockefeller Hearing: Ex-Fiancé of Defendant Said He Had a Temper, Could be ‘Very Mean’

Seven witnesses were planned to testify Tuesday, on that will determine if

Attorneys for both sides want to wrap up the hearing Tuesday, so the witness list has now been cut to five, including

Tuesday’s first witness was Mihoko Manabe, who continued a relationship with the defendant until 1994, even after he broke off their engagement.

When Manabe, who met the man calling himself Christopher Crowe when both worked at Nico Securities brokerage firm in 1987, received a call from a Connecticut detective in 1988 asking for Crowe, the man she was dating revealed a different story.

When asked Tuesday to identify Crowe in the courtroom, Manabe identified the defendant, wearing blue.

Crowe, who lived in New York at that point and had told Manabe his real name was Christopher Chichester Mountbatten, said to her when she mentioned the call that the detective was not police but “somebody bad” and they were going to get him.

Crowe’s parents had gotten into trouble and he and they were in danger, he told Manabe, but didn’t answer her questions about further details.

“I asked why he was hiding, why he had to use different names, why his parents were in trouble, why that got him involved,” said Manabe, who apparently told the detective during his first phone call that Crowe was not there at the time and she would relay the message. She couldn’t recall what happened during a possible second phone call.

From that point on, Crowe told Manabe to cut off contact with her family and friends and suggested measures like receiving their mail in a post office box, disposing of their shredded garbage at a public dumpster and having all accounts in her name, Manabe testified. Manabe complied with Crowe’s requests.

Crowe handled all the bills during that time, making payment with Manabe’s money, and Manabe confirmed to defense attorney Brad Bailey during cross-examination that she previously told police Crowe never embezzled any funds that she noticed.

He Could Be “Very Mean”

When asked by Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian how Crowe treated her, Manabe said, “Not well.”

Later, when asked if Crowe ever got violent, Manabe said she remembered only one instance.

“I had locked our dog in the car in the parking lot and he got furious and squeezed my arm really hard but that was the extent of it,” said Manabe, detailing to Balian that Crowe’s face and the tone and content of his voice indicated he was very angry. 

Defense attorney Brad Bailey asked if the temperature was close to 100 degrees that day and that according to Crowe she had left the dog in the car with the windows up for close to 30 minutes, but Manabe remembered the time frame as not long and said she inadvertently locked the door.

“He could be very mean,” said Manabe, later noting Crowe had a temper and got particularly mad about her driving, her asking how much something cost once at a store and was “disdainful” of people doing menial work. 

“He had a temper but not in a physically violent way,” recalled Manabe. “He was just very caustic and derogatory.”

Defendant Plans Escape, New Identity

At one point the couple went to the German Embassy, which Manabe assumed was part of Crowe’s plan for them to escape out of the country, but she was told to stand aside as Crowe went to the embassy window. She later discovered he had a German passport with his photo inside, but she could not recall the name and “Gerhartsreiter” did not ring any bells when Balian mentioned it to her during Tuesday’s questioning.

The two did not leave the country since Crowe allegedly told her his plan was not going to work.

Manabe recalled the first time Crowe used the name Rockefeller was when he made a reservation for a restaurant in Maine, where the two planned to get married.

“He told you he liked the reaction he got when he used that name, correct?” defense attorney Brad Bailey asked Manabe, noting that the defendant did not start using the name Rockefeller until six or seven months after the Connecticut detective called, which Manabe confirmed.

The only identifying item the couple used that seemed to have a name other than Manabe’s on it was a credit card bearing the name “Clark Rockefeller,” that was linked to Manabe’s account.

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