Woman convicted in neglect death

Her mother-in-law’s body was found covered with sores and maggots.

YORK, Pa. (AP) — A south-central Pennsylvania woman was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for neglecting her 87-year-old mother-in-law, while the woman’s husband was acquitted of murder charges in his mother’s 2004 death.

A York County jury reached its verdict for William J. Donohue, 73, and his wife, Frances Ann Donohue, 61, after deliberating for about six hours on Friday.

The couple were charged with murder after prosecutors said they failed to provide basic medical care for Bernadette Leiben when she was living with them at their Airville home. Leiben was found dead in a bed on May 20, 2004, and her body was covered with bedsores, maggots and ulcers so severe that muscle and bone were visible, police said.

Frances Donohue’s attorney, Thomas L. Kearney III, called the verdict “a win” for his client.

“Prior to trial, we had offered a straight plea to involuntary and the commonwealth rejected it,” Kearney said. “That’s what it should have been all along,” Kearney said.

Defense lawyers argued during the trial that Frances Donohue was solely responsible for caring for Leiben, but was incapable because she was depressed and under the influence of painkillers.

Frances Donohue had asked for the involuntary manslaughter charge to be added to the counts against her before the case went to the jury; her husband did not.

Prosecutor Timothy Barker alleged that the Donohues liquidated Leiben’s assets and spent the proceeds on themselves, instead of on medical care for Leiben.

“Based upon the law, the evidence was sufficient to sustain the charges brought against the defendants. The jury rendered a different decision,” Barker said after the verdict.

The Donohues, who previously lived in Maryland, were released from prison Friday evening. Frances Donohue is being supervised by the county probation department until she is sentenced Sept. 22.