Australia mushroom killer Erin Patterson appeals 3 murder convictions after poisoning elderly relatives

Triple-murderer Erin Patterson appealed her convictions Wednesday for poisoning four of her estranged husband’s relatives with death cap mushrooms.Three judges of the Victoria state Court of Appeal are hearing her appeal over two days against her convictions on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder relating to a lunch of beef Wellington pastries she prepared at her rural home in Leongatha in July 2023.Prosecutors are appealing the leniency of her sentence.The 51-year-old was sentenced in September last year to life in prison and must serve at least 33 years behind bars before she can apply for release on parole.Prosecutors will argue at the hearing Thursday she should be sentenced for life without possibility of parole, Prosecutor Brendan Kissane said.Defense lawyer Richard Edney’s first ground for appeal Wednesday was an error that resulted in jury members being sequestered in the same hotel as a police witness and members of the prosecution team.“This was a very serious breach of sequestration,” Edney told the court.Kissane said there was no evidence to support that ground.“There was no actual contact between any juror and any other person,” Kissane said.Another defense lawyer, Veronika Drago, said there was no evidence that Patterson had read online posts that reported death cap mushrooms had been seen near the towns of Loch and Outtrim.The trial heard evidence from a telecommunications expert that Patterson’s phone connected to towers near Outtrim and Loch.Drago said the evidence was that Patterson’s phone had possibly been in the area.“That in and of itself, in our submission, illustrates just how dangerous and unfair that evidence was” on Patterson’s trial, Drago said.Prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams said the evidence showed that Patterson had an opportunity to deliberately source death cap mushrooms shortly before the lunch.Another ground for appeal was that Prosecutor Nanette Rogers’ cross-examination of Patterson over...