Kristin Rossum grew up as "that girl" -- the one all the boys wanted to date and the girls wanted to be. That was not enough to satisfy her appetite. The story of her husband's murder and her descent into madness was on Oxygen's "Snapped" and Discovery ID's "Deadly Women".
She was a toxicologist in the coroner's office. She stole fentanyl from work and overdosed her husband as a means of divorce. She was sentenced to life without parole, which means she will die in prison.
One of her appeals includes:
State prisoner Kristin Rossum appeals the district court's denial of her petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We reverse and remand for the district court to hold an evidentiary hearing on Rossum's claim that she was deprived of her Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel.
Rossum was convicted of murdering her husband, Gregory de Villers. The prosecution's theory of the case was that Rossum poisoned de Villers using fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opiate. Rossum contends that her counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to have de Villers's autopsy samples tested for fentanyl metabolites, a test that would have resolved whether de Villers had in fact ingested fentanyl or whether fentanyl found in the samples was a product of laboratory contamination subsequent to his death. Rather than investigating, Rossum's counsel simply conceded that the cause of death was fentanyl.
The prosecution's case was purely circumstantial, hinging in large measure on toxicological and medical evidence which was equivocal. The fentanyl levels in de Villers's autopsy samples were extraordinarily, even unnaturally, high. While these elevated concentration levels suggested that death was immediate, they were at odds with medical evidence which indicated that de Villers lingered in a state of unconsciousness for several hours before he died.
You can write to her at:
Kristin Rossum W97094
CCWF
P.O. Box 1501
Chowchilla, CA 93610-1501
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IMHO: Counsel were incompetent. de Villers had access to the lab where fentanyl was present and I don't remember the counsel ever bringing that up. The picture of Rossum several months after deVillers died was (IMHO) what swayed the jury. That picture was more prejudicial than probative. Her attorney's IMHO should not have allowed it to be shown to the jury. I don't remember Attorneys arguing that in the past Rossum always ran from stressful problems. Left town. Why this time did she take such drastic action when in the past she would just pick up and leave. IMHO: Attorneys did a poor job of raising doubt in the minds of the jury. de Viilers married out of his league and was devastated when his trophy wife found comfort in the arms of another man. ? ? ?
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