Dorothy Hirsch, the wife of accused New York City ‘Duck Sauce Killer’ Glenn Hirsch, once received a text message from her brother saying she should ‘bring your 9mm’ that was meant for her husband.
Glenn Hirsch, 51, killed himself in 2022 ahead of a court appearance after being bailed out of jail on a $500,000 bond.
He was accused of murdering Zhiwen Yan, a father-of-three, who he allegedly shot in the chest in Queens while Yan was fulfilling deliveries for a Chinese restaurant on his scooter in Forest Hills for not bringing him enough duck sauce.
Dorothy Hirsch, 62, was indicted on multiple charges of gun possession but she claims she was under the threat of violence if she did not agree to her then-husband’s demands to store weapons and ammunition at her apartment.
Hirsch’s attorneys argue that the text to bring a gun from her brother was meant for the nurse’s weapons-owning husband and that the only reason she’s on trial is because of who she was married to.
Dorothy Hirsch, the wife of accused New York City ‘Duck Sauce Killer’ Glenn Hirsch, once received a text message from her brother saying she should ‘bring your 9mm’ that was meant for her husband
‘This case is about punishing Ms. Hirsch for the alleged sins of her husband,’ defense attorney Mark Bederow said on opening day of her trial.
‘If she was not married to Glenn Hirsch, not subject to his years of abuse, that there would be no prosecution here,’ he added.
The first witness for the prosecution, NYPD Detective Todd Keyes, admitted that a search warrant for the alleged killer’s apartment was only meant to target Glenn Hirsch and that they only found items that belonged to him and not Dorothy.
Keyes and other investigators described Glenn Hirsch as a hoarder.
Queens Assistant DA argued in her opening statement, however, that they found eight illegal weapons and over 400 rounds of ammo in an apartment where Dorothy Hirsch lived alone.
‘In the closet where the guns were found she kept her toilet paper, her hand soap and other household items,’ Georgopolos said.
She added that Dorothy responded to her brother’s text by saying merely: ‘OK.’
The prosecution is admitting that Dorothy Hirsch did not have any fingerprints and DNA on the weapons but claim she had control over what was in her house.
Glenn Hirsch, 51, killed himself in 2022 ahead of a court hearing appearance after being bailed out of jail on a $500,000 bond
He was accused of murdering Zhiwen Yan (pictured right), a father-of-three, who he allegedly shot in the chest in Queens while Yan was fulfilling deliveries for a Chinese restaurant on his scooter in Forest Hills for not bringing him enough duck sauce
Hirsch was physically and emotionally abusive to his wife for decades, her attorney claims in documents seen by DailyMail.com.
The violence, which her lawyer claims, means she would have been unable to stop Glenn Hirsch from storing guns and weaponry in her Queens apartment and should not even have faced charges of gun possession.
Bederow wrote in 2022: ‘Glenn’s acts of brutality against Dorothy (before and during their marriage) included sadistic and violent sexual abuse, striking, cutting and menacing her with weapons, punching her, slapping her, threatening to kill her, extortion and contempt.’
But prosecutors already knew about the history of abuse she endured during her arrest.
The same day his wife was hit with gun charges, a judge in Hirsch’s case was made aware of his past domestic violence arrests.
Hirsch, who was believed to have had several run-ins with the restaurant over duck sauce and other condiments, is accused of shooting Yan before fleeing the scene on April 30.
Glenn Hirsch attempted to prove his wife’s innocence from beyond the grave, trying to exonerate her in a six-page suicide note.
In his ‘dying declaration’ Hirsch said: ‘I want to take full responsibility for the eight guns recovered from a closet in Dorothy’s apartment.
Dorothy Hirsch, 62, was indicted on multiple charges of gun possession but she claims she was under the threat of violence if she did not agree to her then-husband’s demands to store weapons and ammunition at her apartment
Hirsch’s attorneys argue that the text to bring a gun from her brother was meant for the nurse’s weapons-owning husband and that the only reason she’s on trial is because of who she was married to
‘I acquired these firearms many years ago and they remained undisturbed in an outside storage facility shared with previous roommates. However a couple of years ago when my wife purchased her new cooperative apartment.
‘I decided to close the storage unit. It was at that time I moved those items into my wife’s apartment and placed them inside a hallway storage closet along with numerous other unopened bags and boxes…
‘She had absolutely no part in obtaining the firearms nor did she have any knowledge they were inside of her residence.’
He wrote the words to his lawyers, prosecutors and those involved in the case in the lengthy note which was also left in his apartment by cops who discovered him.
While searching Hirsch’s apartment where he died, his wife’s legal team found three gun cases which matched some of the guns found in her closet.
They also discovered boxes of ammunition, and another fully loaded gun, which was missed by NYPD officers when they first searched the property.
Bederow has accused the District Attorney’s office of ‘indicting before investigating’ and ‘trying to fit a square peg into a round hole’.
Police found eight guns as they search Dorothy Hirsch’s home. The weapons were stored in a closet wrapped in bags, with one wrapped in tinfoil.
Evidence photos of guns and ammunition inside the Queens home of Dorothy Hirsch
The violence, which her lawyer claims, means she would have been unable to stop Glenn Hirsch from storing guns and weaponry in her Queens apartment and should not even have faced charges of gun possession
Prosecutors ‘knew that Dorothy was a longtime victim of Glenn’s domestic violence’ before her arrest Bederow explained in a two-page letter to Assistant District Attorney Thomas Salmon.
Accompanying the letter was 10 sealed arrests that between 1991 and 2012, mostly involving his wife as the victim.
The abuse began decades earlier in 1995 before the couple were even married.
Glenn Hirsch was accused of holding Dorothy captive in a motel room before stripping and pistol-whipping her.
He left her handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded while he repeatedly raped and sodomized her. He then cut her as he ran a knife over her stomach, hit her with a ruler, and punched her.
12 years later, Glenn Hirsch continued his violence against his wife, this time hitting her with a rolled-up towel, before punching and scratching her and the placing a pillow over her face to silence her screens.
He threatened to killer her and her family if she went to the police.
On that occasion police found a gun, hundreds of bullets, a knife and even a police shield in his bedroom.
An official for the Queens DA walks in evidence found at Dorothy Hirsch’s home
Queens Assistant DA argued in her opening statement, however, that they found eight illegal weapons and over 400 rounds of ammo in an apartment where Dorothy Hirsch lived alone
Bederow argues that the ‘evidence of Glenn’s years-long abuse of Dorothy was favorable to her having the charges dropped because it offers an obvious explanation as to why she wouldn’t question Glenn Hirsch about his behavior and his property, and why she wouldn’t inspect his possessions.
‘That evidence obviously is relevant to her defense that she didn’t know the guns were in HIS closet because she wouldn’t dare question him or snoop through the junk he stored.
‘It is regrettable that the DA would simply disregard the domestic violence history and refuse to disclose favorable evidence by coldly decreeing that it’s not relevant,’ he added.
‘We are entitled to evidence they knew about before they chose to indict Dorothy for possessing what obviously were Glenn Hirsch’s guns,’ Bederow said in a statement.
Sources previously claimed that Glenn Hirsch’s entire refrigerator was packed with sweet and sour duck sauce, with the rest of the apartment being completely filled with other junk.
Hirsch also declared his innocence in the murder of Yan: ‘I did not shoot Mr. Yan and I am not responsible for his death.’
At Glenn Hirsch’s Briarwood home, cops discovered his refrigerator packed with sweet and sour duck sauce.
‘His whole refrigerator was filled with duck sauce and other condiments,’ a police source explained.
Bederow argues that the ‘evidence of Glenn’s years-long abuse of Dorothy was favorable to her having the charges dropped because it offers an obvious explanation as to why she wouldn’t question Glenn Hirsch about his behavior and his property, and why she wouldn’t inspect his possessions
Some of the weapons and rounds of ammo that were discovered at Dorothy Hirsch’s apartment
‘He’s a hoarder. And when you open the refrigerator, it’s like, condiments – there’s duck sauce, soy sauce, ketchup.’
The source suggested the piles of condiments at his apartment on 141st Street were all a part of what was going on in Hirsch’s brain that may have lead him to kill.
‘I guess in some pathology people like that take that stuff very seriously – you didn’t give him enough duck sauce,’ they said.
In a statement Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said: ‘The loss of a human life is always tragic.
‘Obviously, we would have preferred to try Mr. Glenn Hirsch for the calculated murder of Mr. Zhiwen Yan in a court of law, but this is no longer an option.
‘We once again express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Zhiwen Yan, who continue to grieve his tragic and senseless loss.’