Erin Patterson, the Australian woman accused of killing three relatives of food mushrooms by a death button baked by Beef Wellington, has been found guilty of three charges of murder and attempted murder of the lonely survivor.
A 12-member jury reached the sentence after about six days of discussion after a 10-week test in Moruel, a tiny town about an hour by a car from the suburban dining room in Lengga, Victoria, where the deadly lunch was served in July 2023.
Dozens of media crews were moving before the court when it was announced that the jurors had reached a sentence in the case, which captured the audience around the world and generated four podcasts dedicated to unpacking the evidence every day.
During the weeks of testimonies, Patterson was accused of deliberately puzzled by Death Cap mushrooms, highly toxic mushrooms she chose after seeing their location posted on a public website.
On the days afterwards, her ex -parents, Don and Gail Patterson, died with Gail Heather Wilkinson’s sister. Heather Ian’s husband, their local pastor, survived a weekly hospital stay.
Her defense lawyers say death is a “horrible incident” that occurred when Patterson tried to improve the taste of the diet and that she had repeatedly lied to the police from panic when she found out that she could have added forage mushrooms to the mixture.
Patterson was sitting in court, listening to prosecutors called a witness after a witness whose testimony said, told a captivating triple murder story, which the jurors ultimately believe that they were satisfied with the legal standard of beyond reason.
According to Australian legislation, none of the jurors can be publicly identified and are forbidden to disclose discussions on the jury even after the process is completed.
It will never be known which evidence influenced the decision at every court hearing, but all 12 were obliged to agree on the sentence.
Fate
The agreed facts were that Patterson asked five people to dine on July 29, 2023, including her alienated husband Simon Patterson, who removed the previous day.
Within hours of eating, the four guests of lunch – Simon Don and Gail’s parents, and his aunt and Uncle, Heather and Ian Wilkinson – became ill with vomiting and diarrhea. They went to a hospital where they were placed in an induced coma while doctors tried to save them.
Gail and Heather died on August 4 by the multi -organ failure, followed by Don on August 5, after he failed to respond to a liver transplant. Ian Wilkinson survived and was finally discharged from a hospital in late September, after almost two months of intensive treatment.
Mushrooms of death caps contain Amanita toxins, which prevent protein production in liver cells, leading to cell death and possible liver failure of about two days after ingestion.
Natives in Europe, the deadly mushrooms were found, growing in several Australian states, and at lunch they were seen in a brief driving of Patterson’s home in rural Victoria.
During the trial, the prosecutor’s office claims that Patterson has the ability to choose deadly mushrooms after seeing their location posted on the Citizen Science Inaturalist website.
The wine sentence suggests that the jurors have accepted the prosecution’s argument that it probably traveled to two sites in April and May 2023 and deliberately chose the mushrooms used in the diet.
The mushrooms of the death hat are highly toxic and can cause liver failure and death. – William West/AFP/Getty Images/File
Patterson admitted that on April 28 – the same day, when the mobile phone signals placed it near the Death Cap mushrooms – she bought a dehydrator, which later dumped into a waste recycling center on August 2.
He had fingerprints on it and contained residues of mushrooms from the death hat.
The prosecutor’s office claims that Patterson has falsified diseases in the days after serving lunch and tried to cover his tracks by throwing away the dehydrator and the factory resetting her devices to wipe evidence.
The prosecutor’s office did not have to prove a motive.
Prosecutor Nanet Rogers SC accused Patterson of having two faces: one she showed the world, suggesting that she had a good relationship with Patternsons, the parents of her alienated husband, and a hidden person, which she showed only her friends on Facebook, who suggests that she wanted to reduce their relationships.
On Facebook messages sent in December 2022, Patterson expressed anger and powerlessness from Don and Gail’s unwillingness to get involved in a collapse of his son’s marriage.
“I’m tired of this shit, which I want nothing to do with them,” she wrote. “I thought his parents would like him to do the right thing, but it seems that their concern does not want to feel uncomfortable and not want to get involved in their son’s personal questions are canceled that they are.”
And another message read, “This family swear in *** God.”
Simon Patterson, Don and Gail and Aunt Heather Wilkinson’s parents died within a week of eating poisoned food. – Martin Keep/AFP/Getty Images
During eight days of evidence, including cross -questioning, Patterson consistently pleaded for his innocence, claiming that he inadvertently adding forage mushrooms to the meal.
In her directions to the jurors, justice Christopher Biel said that the recognition of Patterson that she had said to lies and was located in evidence should not cause prejudice against her.
“This is the court, not the court of morality,” he said.
“The question is not whether it is in a sense is responsible for the tragic consequences of lunch, but whether the prosecutor’s office has proven to be beyond the sensible doubt that it is criminally responsible for these consequences,” he said.
The jury found that Patterson intended to kill all four guests at lunch and had repeatedly lied to the podium to claim that she did not.
Patterson will be sentenced to a later date.
This is a developing story. Is yet to come
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