I am writing this letter in support of Katie. My name is (Name Redacted) and I currently reside in Charlottesville, VA. I was born and raised in upstate NY and graduated high school from Sauquoit Valley. My cousin Jackie Keida (engaged to Brian Davoli), told me about the case a few weeks before trial #1. I was able to follow the entire trial via Twitter and was not at all surprised with a hung jury outcome. While I am no expert on how to poison someone, my thoughts at the time were very similar to what Shannon expressed in her FaceBook post, that being - why did Mary continue to get sicker and sicker while in the hospital? And who had exclusive access to her in the hospital? That part made absolutely no sense to me and never will. Now we have just finished with trial #2 which I also followed very closely via Twitter. Perhaps I missed it but I never heard a question asking the medical expert if it was reasonable that the toxin could be found 2 days AFTER being hospitalized and vomiting excessively?

From my very outside perspective, (I obviously do not know you all), I found the case to be entirely circumstantial. Too many questions unanswered. Way too many -what ifs". I feel that the jury had come to its decision of "hung jury" and because of the judge, went back into deliberations feeling "forced" to convict her. I don't know if it was one jury member or six and it doesn't matter really. Their original decision was hung which means they had reasonable doubt. I can't imagine what sort of pressure is on a jury in a case like this. I just hope that whoever "caved" can look themselves in the mirror every day and feel okay with their choice. I hope that decision wasn't made so they could give the county what they wanted or the judge what he wanted. I will wrap this up by saying that there is way more to this case than what was being presented. I don't think Katie got a fair trial or a fair outcome. I truly hope that the appeal takes place and that justice is really served.

Sincerely,

(Name Redacted)