BATON ROUGE – The 1st Circuit Court of Appeal on Friday upheld the second-degree murder conviction for a woman accused of poisoning her domestic partner, rejecting her argument that the evidence against her was insufficient.
A three-judge panel ruled against Meshell Hale, who was convicted of killing Damian Paul Skipper in 2015. Skipper died after four trips to the hospital with signs of low potassium. After Hale’s estranged husband Arthur Noflin died about a year later in New Orleans, the coroner exhumed Skipper’s body in 2017 and determined he died of barium poisoning.
Officials said Hale, or a person using her name, contact information, credit card, and computer, purchased barium acetate online on three different occasions and killed Skipper in an effort to get insurance money. Barium was found in both men’s systems when they died, and Hale received a $10,000 payment from Skipper’s life insurance…