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11th District: Trial court did not err in infant poisoning case
TRACEY BLAIR
Legal News Reporter
Published: March 7, 2013
The conviction of a former teacher serving life in prison for poisoning her infant daughter with lead nitrate was recently affirmed by the 11th District Court of Appeals.
Erin Hendrix claimed a Lake County Common Pleas Court trial court judge improperly denied her petition for post-conviction relief without a hearing.
“The trial court erred in dismissing Mrs. Hendrix’s petition without an evidentiary hearing because Mrs. Hendrix provided sufficient evidence that she was denied the effective assistance of counsel and that the State failed to conduct Mrs. Hendrix’s trial in accordance with the rules of evidence,” according to appellant’s petition.
Hendrix was convicted in February 2011 by a jury of complicity to attempted aggravated murder, complicity to attempted murder, complicity to felonious assault, two counts of complicity to endangering children and six counts of complicity to contaminating a substance for human consumption or use.
She was acquitted on eight counts in the indictment alleging she was the principal offender in all the crimes.
Even though the convictions imply she had help, prosecutors said she acted alone.
According to case summary:
Hendrix, a 30-year-old former physics and science teacher, seriously injured her daughter, Hannah, by repeatedly poisoning her during a 17-month period in 2008 and 2009 in Cuyahoga, Lake and Belmont counties.
Hendrix claimed her lawyer’s performance was prejudicially deficient for failing to employ an expert to review the Center for Disease Control’s report and contest the conclusions and testimony of Dr. Lawrence Quang.
Hendrix submitted the affidavit of Joseph Sachleben, a physical chemist who stated Quang improperly testified that a report analyzing three separate lead samples filed by the CDC showed multiple lead sources had been combined and given to the victim.
According to Sachleben, the CDC’s report concluded that none of the given samples could be primarily responsible for lead in the victim’s body.
At trial, Dr. Cathleen Caldwell, a CDC laboratory chief, and another doctor testified about their analysis of lead isotope ratios in three lead nitrate samples.
One of the samples was taken from appellant’s Mentor home and two from the Belmont County high school chemistry lab where she worked. The samples were compared to the lead isotope ratio found in Hannah’s blood and urine.
“The report issued by Dr. Caldwell and Dr. Osterloh found the lead isotope ratios to be either `clearly different’ or `very different’ from the ratio’s from H.H.’s specimen,” according to 11th District Judge Cynthia Westcott Rice’s 3-0 opinion. “From this, the doctors each testified that the samples could not be either excluded or identified as contributing to the lead in H.H.’s specimen.”
Quang later testified that it would be unlikely for the lead isotope ratios in the victim to be consistent with any of the individual sources since mines have different proportions of lead isotopes.
Under cross examination, Quang testified it would be unlikely that the lead nitrate in Hannah’s system came from a source other than the samples analyzed.
The appellate panel found that Hendrix’s attorney effectively attacked Quang’s testimony about the CDC report and that a defense expert may have been redundant.
“We therefore hold the evidence within the record demonstrates that the decision not to employ an outside expert was reasonable and strategic,” according to Rice’s opinion.
Hendrix also argued her counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the three lead nitrate samples introduced into evidence. She also argued her right to confrontation was violated regarding the accuracy of the CDC doctors’ findings.
The appellate court also rejected Hendrix’s claim that she provided enough evidence of prosecutorial misconduct to warrant a hearing on her motion.
The appellate judges held that since all three arguments are barred by res judicata, the trial court did not err in dismissing her petition without a hearing.
11th District judges Timothy P. Cannon and Diane V. Grendell concurred.
State of Ohio v. Erin Hendrix, posted Feb. 25, is cited case No. 2012-L-080.