Bob Ferrante: The Cyanide Poisoning of Dr. Autumn Klein

Robert Ferrante, a University of Pittsburgh neurological surgery researcher, was convicted of first-degree murder in November 2014 for the cyanide poisoning of his wife, Dr. Autumn Klein. Klein, a 41-year-old chief of women’s neurology at UPMC, collapsed at the couple’s Oakland home on the night of April 17, 2013, after drinking a creatine mixture her husband had prepared. She died three days later. Ferrante is serving a mandatory life sentence without parole at the State Correctional Institution at Houtzdale in Pennsylvania.¹

Who Autumn Klein Was

Autumn Marie Klein earned her MD and PhD in neuroscience from Boston University School of Medicine in 2001 and completed her neurology residency in the combined Harvard program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.² At Harvard she founded one of the first clinics for pregnant women with neurological disorders. She was recruited to Pittsburgh to build and lead a women’s neurology section at UPMC, holding an assistant professorship in neurology, obstetrics, and gynecology, and specialized in managing epilepsy during pregnancy.³ Robert Friedlander, chairman of neurological surgery at UPMC, called her a “rising star.”⁴

Ferrante and Klein met while she was a student and he worked at the Bedford VA hospital in Massachusetts. They married in 2001 and had a daughter, Cianna. Ferrante was 23 years her senior and had been previously married.⁵

A Marriage Under Strain

By early 2013 the marriage was in trouble. Ferrante suspected Klein of an affair with a man in Boston and had confronted her about it roughly three times in the weeks before her death.⁵ Klein described him to that friend as “controlling and unsupportive” regarding her career and their daughter, and in February 2013 confided at a conference in San Francisco that she planned to leave him.⁶

Prosecutors argued Ferrante feared a divorce and privately disliked Klein’s wish for a second child, even while appearing to support it.⁷ Searches recovered from his computer in the months before her death included “divorce in PA” and “malice of forethought.”⁸

How the Poisoning Happened

On April 15, 2013, Ferrante used a university credit card to order a 250-gram bottle of potassium cyanide, shipped overnight to his lab in Scaife Hall.⁹ The order was out of character. Lab administrator Patricia Quirin testified he had never before asked her to place such an order. Lab manager Michele Perpetua testified he demanded overnight delivery and wanted “the best and the purest.”¹⁰ His research assistant, Jinho Kim, testified that Ferrante’s ongoing work did not require cyanide and that Ferrante stored the bottle under his bench when it arrived on April 16.⁸

On the afternoon of April 17, Klein texted her husband: “I have an aura. According to my calendar, I ovulate tomorrow.” Ferrante replied, “Perfect timing. Creatine :0)” and pressed her to take it, writing, “I’m serious. It will make a huge difference. I certain.” When she asked whether the supplement would “stimulate egg production too,” he answered with a smiley face.⁸

Prosecutors said Ferrante mixed roughly 8.3 grams of potassium cyanide into a sugary creatine drink and gave it to Klein that evening. His fingerprint was on the opened bottle, and 8.3 grams were missing from it.⁸ At 11:52 p.m., Ferrante called 911 and said, “I think my wife is having a stroke. She’s staring.” During the 12-minute call, Klein’s condition worsened, and she was heard making guttural, moaning sounds.⁹ Paramedics found her unresponsive with a heart rate in the low 40s and a blood pressure of 48/36. A gallon Ziploc bag of white powder sat on the kitchen counter alongside a small glass vial; Ferrante told them the powder was creatine. Klein was taken to UPMC Presbyterian, never regained consciousness, and died on April 20, 2013.¹¹

The Evidence Against Him

Klein’s treating doctors, puzzled by her profound acidosis and abnormally high oxygen levels, ordered a toxicology screen while she was still alive. Quest Diagnostics returned cyanide concentrations of 2.2 mg/L and 3.4 mg/L, both in the lethal range. A separate forensic lab, NMS, returned a lower level of 0.5 mg/L, which prosecutors characterized as a metabolite.⁸ The official cause of death was cyanide poisoning.

Investigators pulled Ferrante’s search history from his MacBook. It included a January 8, 2013 search for “cyanide poisoning,” a search for “potassium cyanide neuroscience project” on April 14 — one day before he placed his order — and, after Klein’s death, searches for “medical examiner toxicology report,” “toxicology studies potassium cyanide,” and “detecting potassium cyanide poisoning.”⁹ After Klein was hospitalized, Ferrante discouraged an autopsy and asked that her body be cremated.⁶ He was charged with criminal homicide in July 2013.⁴

The Trial

The 10-day trial took place in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas before Judge Jeffrey A. Manning. Assistant district attorneys Lisa Pellegrini and Kevin Chernosky prosecuted; William Diffenderfer and Wendy Williams defended. The prosecution called 50 witnesses and introduced 323 exhibits; the defense called 19.¹²

The state’s case rested on the credit-card purchase, the lethal blood levels, and the search history, tied together by the text messages showing Ferrante urging Klein to take creatine on the day she collapsed.¹³ Prosecutors alleged three overlapping motives: fear of divorce, suspicion of infidelity, and resistance to another child.¹⁴

Ferrante took the stand. He admitted ordering the cyanide but said it was for a stem-cell project connected to his ALS research, and he shrugged off the overnight shipping: “I wanted everything yesterday.” He said his cyanide searches reflected professional curiosity: “I wanted to know more about it. It was going to be the first time I was going to use it.”¹⁵ Jurors noted that Ferrante’s account shifted: he initially told police he gave Klein a creatine drink, but at trial testified he was upstairs and did not know whether she drank anything.¹⁶

The most notable defense witness was forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, who testified that both cause and manner of death were “undetermined.” Wecht called the lab reports “highly conflicting, completely inconsistent” and pointed to Klein’s congenital heart defect and abnormal heart arteries as possible alternatives. He also testified that creatine can lead to the formation of cyanide.¹⁷ His time on the stand lasted 12 minutes.¹⁸

The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for 15 hours over two days. They asked to hear the 911 call again, which Judge Manning permitted, and requested a transcript of Jinho Kim’s testimony, which he denied. On November 7, 2014, they returned a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder.¹²

Sentence and Appeals

First-degree murder in Pennsylvania carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole; prosecutors had not sought the death penalty.¹⁶ At the February 4, 2015 sentencing, Ferrante declined to speak, telling Judge Manning only, “I have none, your honor.” Pellegrini read a statement from Klein’s mother, Lois Klein: “She was our only child and the light of our lives has now been extinguished.”¹⁹

The trial court denied post-trial motions on September 20, 2016. Appellate counsel Chris Rand Eyster then filed a 45-page brief with the Pennsylvania Superior Court raising four arguments: insufficient evidence, verdict against the weight of the evidence, overly broad search warrants (89 were executed in the investigation), and prosecutorial suppression of exculpatory information about the Nichols Institute, the Quest subsidiary that produced the cyanide results.²⁰

The defense also pressed an unusual argument built around the fact that Klein’s liver had been donated after her death and successfully transplanted into a 62-year-old man. Eyster argued that a liver from a genuine cyanide death would have been too damaged to use, and the recipient provided a letter saying he was “still feeling great” four years after surgery.²¹ Prosecutors responded that the transplant information had been available before trial and did not qualify as new evidence.²²

On January 18, 2018, the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the conviction, ruling that the liver transplant was not new evidence and rejecting the other claims.¹³ The Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied his petition for allowance of appeal on August 1, 2018, exhausting his direct appeal rights.²³

Ferrante remains at SCI Houtzdale.

1
TribLIVE. Ferrante Incarceration at SCI Houtzdale
2
Neurology. Autumn Marie Klein, MD, PhD
3
Neurology Today. Autumn Marie Klein Obituary
4
Science. Researcher Charged With Wife’s Cyanide Death
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CBS News. Autumn Klein Update – Robert Ferrante Accused of Poisoning Wife
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ABC News. Pittsburgh Doctor and Wife’s Cyanide Poisoning Death
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The Guardian. Cyanide Poisoning of Wife Brings Life Without Parole for Robert Ferrante
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Undark. Excerpt – Death by Cyanide
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Robert Ferrante – Part 4
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ABC News. Pittsburgh Neuroresearcher Accused in Wife’s Death Wanted Best, Purest
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ABC News. Autumn Marie Klein Parents – Doctor Died of Cyanide Poisoning
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Jury Reaches Verdict in Cyanide Poisoning Case
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CBS News. Robert Ferrante Cyanide Poisoning Conviction Upheld
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BBC News. Pittsburgh Researcher Guilty of Cyanide Poisoning of Wife
15
WTAE. Ferrante – I Didn’t Buy Cyanide to Poison My Wife
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CBS News. Jury – Pittsburgh Researcher Robert Ferrante Poisoned His Wife Autumn Klein
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WTAE. Cyanide Poisoning Trial Day 10 – Wecht Says Cause of Death Undetermined
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WPXI. Cyanide Trial – Dr. Cyril Wecht to Testify Today for Defense
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WCVB. Ex-Harvard Doc Ferrante Gets Life for Cyanide Poisoning of Wife
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Robert Ferrante Cyanide Poisoning Autumn Klein Appeal
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Seattle Times. Man Convicted of Poisoning Wife; Her Liver Proves Otherwise
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CBS News. Cyanide Poisoning – Liver Proves Otherwise
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Robert Ferrante Appeal – Pennsylvania Supreme Court