Blotter

Last Wednesday, two defendants in two separate cases tried to weasel their way out of the Firm Grip of Justice by claiming that they had no choice-they had to do what they did, given the presence of malevolent spiritual forces. (Some pretty heavy-duty ones, too.)

In Brooklyn, Zoila Mosquera, 46, was being arraigned for the stabbing death last January of her 87-year-old grandmother. Mosquera allegedly used a scissors to stab her grandma 600 times.

According to court papers, the Flatbush woman claimed she was convinced that her grandma-the woman who'd just made her French toast that morning-was possessed by the devil. Or was the devil. Ripping her apart with a scissors was apparently the only way to save her. Although she had earlier been declared mentally fit to stand trial, the fact that she kept laughing as her grandmother's wounds were described led the judge to rule that (maybe) she should probably be given another psychiatric exam.

In Queens, Krisna Soogrim, 38, was trying to work out a plea deal in the murder of his girlfriend back in February 2002. Last week, he said that while, yes, he killed her, he couldn't help himself. See, he was possessed by the Hindu god Kali at the time. The judge informed him that possession by Kali (a force of dissolution and destruction) wouldn't exactly hold up under the law-and what's more, blaming everything on a Hindu deity might be perceived as falling a little short of taking full responsibility, which meant going to trial.

It wasn't long before Soogrim (apparently a diagnosed schizophrenic) decided to just plead guilty and be done with it.