Mother cleared of daughter’s murder after 13 years

A WOMAN who spent 13 years in prison after being convicted of strangling her 13-year-old daughter has been exonerated by forensic evidence showing she died of a cocaine overdose.

Lynn DeJac, now 44, was released from prison in New York state and her second-degree murder conviction for the death of her daughter, Crystallynn Girard, was overturned in November after fresh analysis of DNA evidence.

Prosecutors had been planning to retry her this spring, saying the DNA found in her daughter’s body and bed did nothing to refute the circumstantial evidence that led a jury to convict Ms DeJac of killing the girl after a night of heavy drinking.

It was in reviewing evidence for the upcoming trial that the prosecution’s forensics experts made the stunning find that the girl died of “acute cocaine intoxication” and was not killed, Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark said.

Cocaine was found in the girl’s system at the time of her death, he said, but it was ignored at trial because prosecution and defence lawyers thought the amount too small to be relevant.

All charges against Ms DeJac will be dismissed, Mr Clark said.

Ms DeJac said she was trying to put her life back together, including spending time with her teenage twin sons, who were born soon after she went to prison.