Pa. medical researcher gets life for wife's cyanide death

PITTSBURGH - A former University of Pittsburgh Medical Center researcher was sentenced Wednesday to a mandatory term of life in prison without parole for the cyanide poisoning death of his wife, a neurologist.

Sixty-six-year-old Robert Ferrante was convicted in the fall of first-degree murder in the April 2013 death of 41-year-old Dr. Autumn Klein. Prosecutors said he laced her energy drink with cyanide, which he bought through his lab using a university-issued credit card two days before she suddenly fell ill.

Ferrante has steadfastly denied poisoning his wife. During his trial, the defense argued he bought the cyanide for stem cell experiments he was conducting on Lou Gehrig's disease, but prosecutors countered by saying Ferrante was a "master manipulator" who concocted a plan to kill his wife after she pressured him to have a second child. They said Ferrante also feared his wife was having an affair and planned to divorce him.

The victim's mother, Lois Klein, said in a statement read in court Wednesday by an assistant prosecutor that the murder had robbed her and her husband of their only child.

She said, "The light of our lives has now been extinguished."

Ferrante and Klein had an 8-year-old daughter. She is currently in the custody of Klein's parents.

Ferrante declined an opportunity to speak in court Wednesday. His attorneys are seeking a new trial.