Judge Upholds Researcher's Conviction In Wife's Poisoning

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A judge has upheld a jury's verdict that a former western Pennsylvania medical researcher purposely killed his neurologist wife by cyanide poisoning.

Sixty-seven-year-old Robert Ferrante has been serving life in prison since an Allegheny County jury convicted him in November 2014 in the April 2013 death of 41-year-old Dr. Autumn Klein.

Ferrante's attorney, Chris Eyster argued that prosecutors didn't have sufficient probable cause for search warrants used to obtain some evidence, and argued there were problems with a lab that confirmed the poison in Klein's body, among other arguments.

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Manning rejected those arguments in a 45-page opinion first reported Tuesday by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Prosecutors say Ferrante killed Klein by lacing an energy drink with cyanide and giving it to her under the guise of promoting fertility.

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