ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A woman accused of fatally poisoning her boss had her manslaughter conviction overturned Friday. A New York appeals court said improperly obtained evidence from her cell phone was used against her.
Kaitlyn Conley has been serving a 23-year sentence in the 2015 death of chiropractor Dr. Mary Yoder, a case that spurred a documentary series.
“Ms. Conley is looking forward to clearing her name,” appeals lawyer Melissa Swartz said in an email.
She said Conley will be transported back to Oneida County for prosecutors to say whether they plan to pursue the case. A message seeking comment was sent Friday to the Oneida County district attorney’s office.
Conley, now 31, was a receptionist in Yoder’s office in Whitesboro, a village in central New York, and had dated Yoder’s son.
Authorities said Conley poisoned Yoder, 60, with an anti-inflammatory drug called colchicine. Conley has said she’s innocent.
“I did not kill Mary Yoder,” Conley said in an ABC News Studios series, “Little Miss Innocent,” that was shown on Hulu last fall. She added: “I put all my faith and all my trust in the system and these people, and it didn’t work.”
Conley’s first trial ended in a hung jury. At a 2017 retrial, she was acquitted of murder but convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
A mid-level state appeals court ruled Friday that investigators went beyond what their warrant allowed when they had a cybersecurity center search Conley’s cell phone. The search found references to the words “poison” and “colchicine” and ties to an email account used to acquire colchicine, according to the court.
“A person’s cell phone now contains at least as much personal and private information as their home and, thus, indiscriminate searches of cell phones cannot be permitted,” a five-judge panel of state Appellate Division judges wrote.