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Christopher Conley, of Northampton, who is serving a 16 to 18-year prison sentence, filed a petition for a new trial saying that the judge erred in allowing the jury to hear evidence that he'd previously attempted to poison the girl, the Northwestern District Attorney's Office said.
He was arrested in April 2015 after his daughter was admitted to Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut with extreme abdominal pain.
Conley admitted to police that he injected Liquid-Plumr drain cleaner into his daughter’s cecostomy tube — a catheter for the large intestine, the prosecutor's office said. He then gave her a heavy dose of opioids to "put her to sleep."
A jury found Conley guilty of attempted murder, assault and battery on a child using a dangerous weapon (opioids), and assault and battery on a child causing substantial bodily injury, officials said.
Conley had previously asked for a new trial on the grounds of inadequate council. That request was rejected last year. The state appeals court heard Conley's second argument in July and issued its 37-page ruling on Wednesday.
We have carefully reviewed each of the defendant’s arguments and the judge’s careful resolution of them. No purpose would be served by repeating the judge’s analysis. There was no abuse of discretion.
Sadly, the poisonings weren't the only abuse Conley's daughter suffered.
Julie Gordon, the girl's mother, was convicted in 2021 of a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment of a child and placed on probation until September 2023, the Northwestern District Attorney's Office said.
Officials said she was taking the girl to doctors and hospitals and exaggerating or making up medical symptoms, which led to several unnecessary and dangerous medical procedures being needlessly administered to the child.
Neither Gordon nor Conley have custody of the girl.
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