Former Boston Doctor Faces Life in Prison for Poisoning Wife to Death
A doctor who became a leading national researcher while working in Boston was convicted on Friday of fatally poisoning his wife.
A Pittsburgh jury found Dr. Robert Ferrante guilty of first-degree murder for using cyanide to poison Dr. Autumn Marie Klein. Ferrante, 66, now faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for killing Klein, 41, in April 2013.
Prosecutors believe that Ferrante killed his wife because she wanted to have another child and over suspicions of infidelity, according to WPXI in Pittsburgh. A months-long investigation ended with Ferrante’s arrest in West Virginia this past summer.
Ferrante became a prominent researcher on ALS, also known as Lou Gherig’s Disease, while working at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He met Klein, a neurologist, while they worked together at a Bedford hospital. They married in 2001 and later moved to Pittsburgh to work at the University of Pittsburgh, according to WCVB.
Ferrante maintained his innocence throughout the trial, claiming that the cyanide — which was paid for with a university-issued credit card — was ordered for research purposes. Prosecutors claim he mixed the lethal chemical with an energy drink for Klein, who fell ill soon after drinking it and died two days later. There was evidence that Ferrante searched online about cyanide poisoning, but the defense said it was also research related.
The jury, which took 15 hours to deliberate after a two-week trial, felt that there were too many inconsistencies in Ferrante’s alibi, including his whereabouts when Klein drank the poisoned mixture. Juror Lance DeWeese explained to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that ultimately it was Ferrante’s own testimony that did him in:
“We had heard from day one that Robert Ferrante was downstairs,’’ he said. “One of the last ones to take the stand was Bob Ferrante and all of the sudden the story changes where I’m upstairs and he hears Autumn come in the door.’’
Ferrante is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 4.
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