Opinion ID: 3194677
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Ohio’s Murder Case Against Virginia

Text: Shortly before Virginia’s and William’s final divorce hearing, William visited the family home for dinner. After dinner and into the following day he displayed increasingly erratic and combative behavior. Virginia eventually called paramedics claiming to have discovered several pills missing from an old Elavil (antidepressant) prescription bottle. Nonetheless, William died. Before he died of cardio-pulmonary arrest, however, he told a hospital nurse competing stories regarding the pills: (1) that he “couldn’t cope any more” and took them, and (2) that Virginia forced them on him. The Licking County Coroner’s Office, led by Dr. Raker, investigated the alleged overdose and upon finding numerous bruises on the corpse—unusual for an overdose suicide— contacted Detective Ballantine. Dr. Raker ordered a forensic autopsy, which required transferring William’s corpse from Licking County to the Franklin County Coroner’s Office (FCCO). -2- Case Nos. 14-3905/3906, LeFever v. Ferguson Franklin County’s Chief of Forensic Pathology, Dr. Patrick Fardal, performed this autopsy and Ferguson performed a toxicology analysis. Thereafter, FCCO returned William’s body to Dr. Raker’s custody. The initial toxicology results led Ferguson to suspect that Virginia injected William with amitriptyline, a key ingredient in the antidepressant Elavil, so Ferguson requested that Dr. Raker examine William’s body for intramuscular injection sites. Dr. Raker found one suspicious injection site on William’s left buttock and sent Ferguson a biopsy from that site for toxicology testing. Tests revealed amitriptyline in the suspicious injection site and in William’s lower colon, indicative of both intramuscular injection and rectal administration. Ferguson also discovered two types of strychnine-poisoned rodent bait in William’s colon. At the conclusion of the autopsy and toxicology analysis, FCCO issued a report concluding that William died from exposure to amitriptyline. The Newark Police Department’s investigation uncovered hypodermic needles and syringes, rodent-killing poison, and charred remains from “Smoke’em” fumigation pesticides in Virginia’s home. Interviews with LeFever’s young children revealed that the day before William died, Virginia lit one of the “Smoke’em” pesticides in a bedroom while he slept and then left with the children and family cat. Relying on the physical evidence, witness statements, and autopsy report, the Licking County Prosecutor obtained an indictment from a grand jury in November 1988. Before Virginia’s trial, Ferguson and Director of Forensic Toxicology Dr. Daniel Couri (also associated with FCCO) issued a supplemental toxicology report (Supplemental Report) noting that arsenic and sulfur oxides, the primary gas generated by “Smoke’em” pesticides, contributed to William’s death. The Supplemental Report found arsenic in William’s hair, nails, kidney, heart, and liver. -3- Case Nos. 14-3905/3906, LeFever v. Ferguson Ultimately, the Supplemental Report concluded that William “died as a consequence of multiple administration of toxic agents,” with amitriptyline poisoning as the “immediate cause.” In response, Dr. Raker issued a supplemental death certificate listing acute amitriptyline and nortriptyline poisoning by intramuscular injection as the primary cause of William’s death, now classified as a homicide. It further recorded acute poisoning by sulfur oxide, arsenic, and strychnine via pulmonary and rectal routes, as well as chronic arsenic poisoning via an oral route as other significant conditions. Following a bench trial, an Ohio court convicted Virginia of murder. She spent more than 20 years in prison until revelations about Ferguson’s misrepresented graduation date led the court to order a new trial in November 2010. In granting the new trial, the court doubted Virginia’s innocence, but nonetheless found that Ferguson’s dishonesty regarding his graduation date resulted in an unfair trial.