Imprisoned Former Coroner's Toxicologist Pushing for New Trial

By City News Service

A former San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office toxicologist who was convicted nearly 11 years ago of fatally poisoning her husband is asking a judge for permission to test tissue samples collected during his autopsy.

Kristin Rossum is serving life in prison without parole following her conviction in the Nov. 6. 2000, death of 26-year-old Gregory de Villers. She was just 26 years old when she was convicted of first-degree murder in late 2002.

The prosecution successfully argued that Rossum, a methamphetamine addict, poisoned her husband with the powerful painkiller fentanyl after he threatened to report her drug use and her affair with a supervisor in the Medical Examiner's Office.

Rossum's lawyer Elizabeth Missakian said Monday that she and her client want to test the tissue samples collected during de Villers' autopsy to determine whether they may have been contaminated when the original testing was done, U-T San Diego reported.

"We're steps away from a motion for a new trial," she said. "Is that the direction I'd like to see it go? Yes. But we're very far from that right now."

If Rossum asks for a new trial, it would not be her first such bid since being sent to prison.

In 2010, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Rossum was entitled to a special hearing to determine if her trial attorney's performance was deficient for not challenging the prosecution's contention that the victim died from an overdose of fentanyl. However, a year later, the panel ruled that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting federal appeals of state court proceedings applied to Rossum's case. At the time, the California Supreme Court had already ruled against Rossum.

In her original trial, Rossum's defense was that her husband committed suicide because he was depressed over their failing 18-month marriage.