New York Appellate Court Vacates Kaitlyn Conley's Manslaughter Conviction in Colchicine Poisoning Case

Yesterday, a New York appellate court vacated Kaitlyn Conley's manslaughter conviction. I provided pro bono assistance to Conley's attorney, Melissa Swartz, in the appeal. So, what are the key facts of the case?

Kaitlyn Conley worked at the chiropractor office of Dr. Mary Yoder, who was also the mother of Conley's ex-boyfriend. The State's theory of the case was that, on the day in question, Conley poisoned Dr. Yoder's lunch with colchicine, a plant-based alkaloid which may be used to treat and prevent gout and some other inflammatory conditions, but which can also be lethal in larger doses. According to the State, Conley poisoned Dr. Yoder in the hopes that Dr. Yoder's death would leave her ex-boyfriend devastated and cause him to come to her for comfort.

At Conley's first murder prosecution, the prosecution presented patients who testified about Dr. Yoder seeming to suffer from the effects of colchicine poisoning when they saw her on the afternoon in question. This would generally support the State's timeline, given that the effects of colchicine typically start to show about 2-8 hours after ingestion.

But there was a huge problem for the prosecution: The defense called another of Dr. Yoder's patients, who saw her on the day in question for a 10:30am appointment. Here is how that testimony was described in Conley's motion for a new trial:

Obviously, this testimony totally contradicts the State's theory of the case and suggests that Dr. Yoder ingested the colchicine before coming to work because fatigue and redness of the eyes are both symptoms of colchicine poisoning. As later noted in the motion:

At the end of the first trial, there was a hung jury. While there was some confusion about the split among jurors, most jurors thought that the jury was split 10-2 in favor of a "not guilty" verdict when the jury hung. As one juror told a private investigator:

The State then brought the murder case back to trial, with Conley now represented by a new attorney. For unknown reasons, the new attorney did not call Holly Hilts, the patient who had seen Dr. Yoder at 10:30am. That new attorney also failed to move to suppress evidence improperly retrieved from Conley's cell phone, which was the basis for yesterday's opinion tossing her conviction.

Speaking of that conviction, even without testimony by Hilts or a motion to suppress, the jury still told the judge they were deadlocked after days of deliberation. The judge then gave the jurors an Allen charge to continue deliberating. Ultimately, the jury found Conley guilty of the lesser included offense of manslaughter.

Now, with that conviction thrown out, the question is whether the State will try to take the case to trial for a third time.

-CM