It was a San Diego murder case involving a meth-addicted county toxicologist, her secret affair with her boss and a rose petal-covered crime scene evocative of the iconic "American Beauty." Now it's an appeal hinging on the results of new lab tests.
Kristin Rossum, who worked in the San Diego County Medical Examiner's office when prosecutors alleged she poisoned her husband to death in 2000, has a new shot at habeas corpus relief after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that her trial counsel was unconstitutionally ineffective.
A three-judge panel ordered U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino to hold an evidentiary hearing that is to include lab tests that should either confirm or dispel the prosecution's theory that Gregory de Villers died from an overdose of the powerful opiate fentanyl.
De Villers died just days after confronting his wife about her relapse into methamphetamine use and her affair. His body was found covered in rose petals and his death was initially ruled a suicide. The subsequent murder prosecution made national headlines.
The 9th Circuit on Thursday chided defense counsel for failing to do an "elementary" investigation into lab samples and for using an "implausible" suicide-by-fentanyl defense.
The new test will determine whether the fentanyl found in samples from de Villers' body was introduced after his death, which the court noted could be a result of either lab contamination or a conspiracy to implicate Rossum in his murder.
The samples were stored more than a day at the county lab where Rossum worked, according to the 9th Circuit's opinion. At the time, her co-workers resented her for her affair with her boss, which they thought resulted in preferential treatment. That situation, and the possibility that the fentanyl could have been introduced to the samples by accident, could have provided Rossum with a different defense, the 9th Circuit concluded.
Testing also found other drugs in de Villers' system, which the court noted could have caused his death in either a homicide or suicide.
"In light of the anomalous medical and toxicological evidence, the ready availability of an alternative cause of death, the lapse in the chain of custody of de Villers' autopsy specimens, and the failure of Rossum's attorneys to have a test conducted that could have conclusively contradicted the prosecution's theory of the case, she has made a strong showing that her lawyers' performance was deficient," wrote Judge Nancy Gertner, a Massachusetts federal judge sitting by designation. Ninth Circuit Judges Dorothy Nelson and Stephen Reinhardt concurred.
Because the court couldn't determine whether Rossum is entitled to habeas relief without the new lab testing, the case, Rossum v. Patrick, 09-55666, was sent back to Sammartino for further proceedings.
Rossum is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole. She has exhausted her state appeals and post-conviction remedies.
The 9th Circuit did not identify Rossum's trial attorneys by name, but according to press reports at the time of the trial they were Alexander Loebig and Victor Eriksen of the San Diego public defender’s office.
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