Ferrante cyanide poisoning case featured on ‘Dateline NBC'

PITTSBURGH — The case of former University of Pittsburgh Medical Center researcher Dr. Robert Ferrante, convicted in the cyanide poisoning death of his UPMC neurologist wife, was featured Thursday night on “Dateline NBC” on Channel 11.

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Ferrante, 66, was sentenced in February to a mandatory life sentence with no parole for the death of his wife, Dr. Autumn Klein. A jury found Ferrante guilty of first-degree murder in November.

On Wednesday, a judge rejected a defense appeal to overturn the verdict or grant a new trial. The Common Pleas judge's denial of the appeal allows the defense to appeal to Superior Court.

Allegheny County prosecutors said Ferrante laced his wife's creatine energy drink with cyanide he purchased using a university-issued credit card, a claim Ferrante denies.

Autumn Klein collapsed at home two days after the cyanide was purchased. She died on April 20, 2013, three days after falling ill.

Defense attorney Chris Eyster argued that Ferrante was convicted on circumstantial evidence, that there was no evidence that he put cyanide in his wife's energy drink and that medical specialists disagreed about whether she died of poison or a sudden heart dysrhythmia.

Dateline's Dennis Murphy spoke with Judge Jeffrey Manning about the jury's verdict, asking if it could have gone either way.

"That would be correct," said Manning. "And I'm not one for predicting verdicts, but I would not have predicted one here."

Thursday night's Dateline also provided insight into a possible motive in Autumn Klein's murder from the perspective of Pittsburgh detectives.

"It's jealousy and power. That's my opinion and my feel for Mr. Ferrante," Detective Harry Lutton, who brought Ferrante back to Pennsylvania after he was arrested in West Virginia, told Murphy.

Detective James McGee said Autumn Klein's career was rising as Ferrante's was falling. The couple moved to Pittsburgh from Boston for an opportunity Autumn Klein received.

"Then once she got here, he believed that she was going to leave him and everything that he left behind for her; he's going to be left with nothing now. And he wasn't going to have it," said McGee.

Lois Klein, Autumn Klein's mother, said her daughter grew distant from her husband.

"Only toward the end did I see anything, and that was that, to me, that for some reason or other she seemed to be trying to get away from him more and more," said Lois Klein.

Klein told Murphy that she wanted an autopsy after her daughter's death, but Ferrante argued with her, saying that, medically, they wouldn't need one.

"I've never seen this man respond or show emotion over the death of his wife. None," Lutton said.

Dateline also spoke with Channel 11's Alan Jennings about the case.