Uniontown man granted retrial in death of his 23-month-old daughter
A Fayette County judge granted a new trial for a Uniontown father convicted of third-degree murder in his 23-month-old daughter’s death after updated medical determinations showed the child weighed more than the 10 pounds prosecutors contended.
Judge Linda Cordaro found that the attorneys representing Michael Wright, 39, should have more thoroughly challenged medical evidence and testimony about Lydia Wright’s weight at the time of her 2016 death.
Prosecutors argued the girl died from malnutrition and dehydration, but a February 2023 report from a medical expert hired to review the records contended the weight reported by Dr. Cyril Wecht was “incorrect, and far exceeds the 10 pounds at which (Lydia Wright) was determined to weigh.”
“Based on the autopsy report and the coroner’s report, it is my opinion that Lydia Wright did not show conclusive signs of dying of malnutrition and dehydration,” wrote Dr. Jennifer Hammers, who formerly worked for Wecht and served as an expert in Wright’s most recent appeal.
In a post-conviction appeal petition, Wright’s attorney Jeremy Cooper also included an email from Wecht rescinding his opinion that the child weighed 10 pounds when she died, after he reviewed her autopsy photos.
“From the photographs, it is clear that the decedent’s documented weight is far more than the 10 pounds that was documented in the autopsy report,” Wecht’s email reads, adding that the recorded weight may have been due to a malfunction with the autopsy scale that was used to weigh Lydia Wright.
For Michael Wright’s mother, retired nurse Kimberly Vega, Cordaro’s order granting her son a new trial brought a sense of relief.
“Once Wecht said that was the weight, everybody took it as gospel that’s what it was,” Vega said on Friday. “When said and done, even he (Wecht) said that was wrong.”
In vacating Wright’s conviction and 15-to-40-year prison sentence, Cordaro called the child’s reported weight “the most damning evidence” introduced against him, and found it was one of the “main points of prosecution.”
She found the representation at trial provided by Wright’s lead counsel was ineffective, noting the lead counsel should have questioned Wecht about the child’s weight and sought out a defense expert to review Wecht’s findings.
Cordaro also noted prosecutors relied on the belief that the child weighed 10 pounds heavily during closing arguments.
“However, because of the ineffective assistance of (Wright’s) counsel, the alleged weight measurement remained uncontradicted and unchallenged in the jury’s mind. (Wright) thereby was prejudiced to an extent that the outcome of the trial may have been different but for counsel’s inaction,” Cordaro wrote in an Aug. 29 opinion.
Assistant District Attorney Melinda Dellarose, who prosecuted Wright’s case, said Friday that prosecutors are “evaluating our options with how to proceed, which includes the possibility of filing an appeal or proceeding with a retrial.”
Wright and his girlfriend, Andrea Dusha, 34, of Uniontown, were both charged in Lydia’s death. Prosecutors contended they left the girl strapped into a car seat at their Uniontown home for more than 12 hours on Feb. 24, 2016, leading her to die from malnutrition and dehydration hours before Dusha brought her to the hospital for treatment.
In 2019, Dusha pleaded no contest to third-degree murder and was sentenced to 9 ½ to 19 years in prison. A post-conviction appeal is also pending in her case.
Wright, meanwhile, is waiting to see if a judge will free him on bail while he waits for a second trial.
Vega, who has supported her son since he was charged, said the news of the retrial is a chance to prove her child did not neglect his own.
“This is definitely a decision that we wanted and fought for all this time,” Vega said. “We need to get to the point to actually grieve and get through that process. It’s been a long eight years.”