Former university professor found guilty of poisoning wife

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- A jury has found a former university neuroscience professor guilty of murdering his wife by poisoning her with cyanide.

Robert Ferrante, who once worked at the University of Pittsburgh, now faces a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Ferrante launched a plan to kill wife, Autumn Klein, after she pressure him to have a second child, said prosecutors. He used a university credit card two days before his wife fell ill to buy more than 8 ounces of cyanide, which he said he had purchased for a stem cell experiment, a claim contradicted by colleagues. His wife died three days after he gave her the poison. Prosecutors called him a "master manipulator."

The results of blood tests on Klein in the hospital, which revealed a lethal dose of cyanide, weren't available until after her death.

The jury deliberated for 15 hours over two days before finding Ferrante, 66, guilty of first-degree murder. Panel members cited his changing stories during testimony, and his Google searches on cyanide and cyanide poisoning.

"I hope we did justice for them," said one juror, referring to Klein's family. "We have to feel like we did right and I feel right. I feel at peace."