Trial begins for researcher accused of poisoning doctor wife

PITTSBURGH - Jurors heard from prosecution and defense attorneys - and then from a dying woman herself - at the start of a homicide trial for a University of Pittsburgh researcher charged with poisoning his wife.

The prosecution says 41-year-old Dr. Autumn Klein can be heard "gasping and groaning and moaning and dying" on the 911 call by her husband, Dr. Robert Ferrante.

Attorneys for the 66-year-old researcher contend that Ferrante did not poison his wife, a neurologist. He also says medical experts will show she wasn't poisoned by anyone and died of unexplained causes.

The jury heard the frantic 911 call from the first witness, an emergency dispatcher.

Prosecutors want a first-degree murder conviction, punishable by life in prison. They argue Ferrante laced an energy drink with cyanide to kill Klein in April 2013 after telling her the drink would help them conceive another child. Their daughter, Cianna, was 6 when her mother fell suddenly ill and died three days later.

Ferrante has denied the allegations and said he was devastated by Klein's sudden death. But authorities contend he bought the poison with his University of Pittsburgh credit card two days before his wife fell ill, and that someone used his computer to research whether treatments his wife received after falling ill would have removed the toxin from her system.

Ferrante had his wife cremated shortly after her death, but tests on her blood stemming from her hospital treatment revealed the cyanide, prompting police to charge him about three months after she died.

The defense had sought an out-of-county jury based on pretrial publicity. Although a judge granted their request, the defense then decided without explanation a few weeks ago to pick a jury locally.

A court-imposed gag order prevents the attorneys and witnesses from commenting until after a verdict.